Career

Barrett moved to Monkstown, Company Dublin and then to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), Company Dublin, in Ireland. In 1879 she helped set up a committee for the establishment of a care facility for children, effectively a creche allowing women to enter the workforce.

To avoid accusations of proselytising, the home did not accept Catholic children.

Rosa Barrett founded the Irish section of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1889.