[2] Before her marriage, Farrell was a poultry inspector in the Munster Institute, but had to resign the job because the Department of Agriculture banned the employment of married women.
In recognition of her work, she was nominated by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch to the 12th Seanad in 1969 (following her uncle Ted O'Sullivan, who had been a Teachta Dála (TD) and then a senator).
In 1970 she wrote a highly charged letter to an ICA member who criticised the stance she had taken in voting against an amendment allowing married women to become officers of the new Health Boards.
[2] In the early 1970s, Farrell started a clothing factory called Chixwear in Athlone, County Roscommon, to provide an alternative to emigration for young women in the area.
When the women journalists on The Irish Times drew up an all-woman "fantasy cabinet" on 14 February 1973, Farrell was one of those included.