[1][2][3] His father, Michael, was the head air traffic control officer of Shannon Airport; his mother, Maura, worked as the principal of a Limerick primary school.

[3] Three years after moving to the US, Moloney co-founded Green Fields of America, an ensemble of Irish musicians, singers, and dancers which toured across the US on several occasions.

One of these was the 1985 festival in Manhattan titled "Cherish the Ladies" to highlight female musicians in the area of Irish traditional music, which had been dominated by men until that decade.

The group's leader, Joanie Madden, was one of several future fellows of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to be mentored by Moloney.

[2] Moloney undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, obtaining a master's degree before being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in folklore and folk life in 1992.

[5] In addition to music performance, Moloney wrote Far From the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American History Through Song, which was published by Crown Publications in February 2002 with a supplementary CD on Shanachie Records.

[2][3] In Bangkok, he volunteered as a music therapist and teacher for abandoned children with HIV at the Mercy Center in the Khlong Toei slums, which was founded by the Redemptorist priest Joseph H.