Owing to the working conditions at the hotel, Conroy organised a secret operation to affiliate the staff with the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU).
She was the shop steward for ITGWU members at the Capitol, and became involved in the union's branch which served hotel, restaurant and catering staff (no.
In 1954, she was the only woman delegate at the Congress of Irish Unions, when she commented that the marriage bar never affected women in low-status, low-paid jobs in catering, retail, cleaning, or domestic service.
At the Labour Court she negotiated on behalf of her branch that same year, and helped establish regional sectoral industrial councils to set wages and employment conditions, as well as campaigning for the creation of a national pension scheme for all workers.
[1][3] She and the union's general president, John Conroy, introduced new rules regarding the payment of marriage gratuities to women members at the ITGWU congress in 1958.
[1][3] Conroy missed out on the second Labour Party nomination to stand in Dublin South-East in the 1969 general election, losing out to Noel Browne.
She worked for a time as a playgroup leader at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin before she was recruited by Ruaidhrí Roberts in November 1969 to take up the post at The People's College as part-time secretary-organiser.
Conroy opposed Ireland's entry into the EEC, serving as chair of Irish Women Against the Common Market, fearing that it would mark increased food prices and result in more poverty.
She collaborated with Dermot Kinlen at St Patrick's Institution visiting committee to highlight and combat the issue of widespread illiteracy and lack of training among the juvenile inmates.
Conroy lived in Sandymount Avenue, Ballsbridge, Dublin, moving to the Tara Care Centre, Bray, County Wicklow during her last years.