Janie McCarthy was born in Bohereengowan, Killarney, County Kerry. She was fourth of the eight children of mason, Jeremiah, and Mary McCarthy. She was most likely educated locally, emigrating to France in 1910. Initially, she lived in Brittany working as an au pair, before moving to Paris. She attended to Sorbonne, studying French and English. McCarthy started a language school which developed a huge reputation with the children of royalty and European aristocracy attending. For her work in teaching during World War I, she was awarded the Ordre des Palmes académiques in 1918, which was rarely awarded to foreigners.
At the outbreak of World War II, McCarthy destroyed her British passport to avoid the possibility of being imprisoned by German authorities. She joined the resistance and other related groups when France fell, she even started her own initiative in the Paris area. Her area of specialisation was in rescue work, saving a number of lives including members of the allied intelligence services and armies. Her method was simple, enrolling each refugee as a member of staff. Her riskiest gambit was bringing an American officer through a Gestapo inspection in the Paris metro, convincing the officers that he was as a deaf mute because he could not speak French. From 1940 to 1944, she only lost one refugee, a French double agent. She was also involved in intelligence gathering. While many of her counterparts were sent to concentration camps, McCarthy evaded detection for the entirety of the war. Her home at 64, rue Sainte-Anne acted as a safe house. Within the Defence Historical Service, McCarthy was recorded as a man. She donated a large portion of her salary to fund a civilian camp at Saint Denis, the Military Hospital Val de Grace and the sanatorium at Brevannes. For her work she was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and Resistance Medal, the Americanmedal of freedom and a citation signed by President Eisenhower, and the British Tedder certificate for aiding British personnel to escape.
McCarthy continued to teach her pupils after the war, bringing students to Kerry on summer trips. She even conducted language classes at her bedside in June 1964, as her health was failing. She was brought to the Hertfordshire British Hospital, Paris in November 1964, dying there on 20 December 1964. She was buried in Paris on 28 December. Her death was not noted in the Irish national newspapers, bar the Irish Times.
