His father had a surgery at 15 North Frederick Street, and his mother was a member of numerous nationalist organisations such as Cumann na mBan.

[1] Tuohy was born without a left hand, and would later wear a metal prosthesis which he covered with a black glove, and he used to hold a painting palette.

He attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art at night, going to become a full-time student, studying under William Orpen for five years.

It was Orpen who encouraged him to work on his life drawing, with his 1910 "Girl in a white pinafore" an early example of his portraiture.

[2][3] Along with his father he fought in the Easter Rising and was based alongside James Connolly in the General Post Office.

Tuohy was able to use these and other prizes to travel to Spain, living in Madrid for a year while teaching painting at the Loreto convent, as well as studying the work of Francisco de Zurbarán and Diego Velázquez.

He contributed a pencil sketch to The book of Saint Ultan: a collection of pictures and poems by Irish artists and writers (1920) which was edited by Katherine MacCormack.

This work included portraits of a number of Tuohy's contemporaries such as Keating as John the Baptist, Thomas MacGreevy as an onlooker, Seán O'Sullivan, and Phyllis Moss.

[2][3] Tuohy painted portraits of a number of theatre personalities in the 1920s, such as Ria Mooney (1922), Padraic Colum (1924), and Seán O'Casey (1926).

The Hugh Lane Gallery holds two of his early works from St. Enda's, "The flight of Cuchulainn" and "Entry into battle".

The painting "The agony in the garden" from circa 1919 was originally held in the Loreto convent on North Great George's Street, Dublin, but was later moved to the Christ the King church, Cabra.