Her father worked as a Head Constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary and her parents encouraged her interest in education.
During this time she shared a flat with sisters Nellie and Rose Cohen, and Daisy Lansbury.
[4][7] Along with Nellie Cohen, between 1919 and 1921 she ran the office of the People's Russian Information Bureau (established by Sylvia Pankhurst).
[5] In 1919 the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was founded in the flat that she shared with Nellie Cohen and Daisy Lansbury.
[3] In 1924[3] she travelled to Moscow where she stayed until 1928 and worked in the Translation Section of the Comintern Press Department.