She was posted abroad to Sweden, Egypt, Argentina, Switzerland, Turkey and the Soviet Union as the wife of David Kelly, the Head of Chancery, later Ambassador there.
[3][4][5] Lady Kelly and her husband attracted positive press coverage that enhanced the confidence of the Anglo-Turkish alliance,[5] and they made contact with several provincial governors.
[3] In 1949, she moved to Moscow in the Soviet Union for three years in an era where the country had severe restrictions imposed on diplomats; she and her husband were given permission for wider travel experiences than their colleagues.
[1][3] The Kellys left Moscow in 1951 when her husband retired from the Foreign Office; she then wrote a series of articles, describing her travels, for Country Life magazine and the London Evening Standard newspaper.
[3][5] She mostly resided in a grand and elegant flat spanning the upper floors of two houses in Carlyle Square in Chelsea, London,[1][5] and continued to hold dinners and parties for friends, relatives, writers and diplomats to the end.
[5] Following a memorial mass held at the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Cheyne Row, Chelsea on 6 April,[7] she was buried in County Wexford.