Kathleen Dolan was born on Church Street, Strabane, County Tyrone on 11 April 1921. Her parents were James Dolan and Kathleen Theresa Maude (née Reid). She had a sister and a brother. Her brother was a national school teacher but went on to become secretary of the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society, part of the Irish co-operative movement. The family moved to Dublin, where her father died in 1924 aged 35. Dolan attended Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, Dublin. She spent time near Rouen, France, to improve her French, returning to Ireland just as World War II broke out.
