 In 1927 Gahan embarked on a career as a painter and decorator with an all-female firm, the Modern Decorator, and through this work first came into contact with the United Irishwomen, a group founded in 1910 and which Gahan joined in 1929.The inspiration for the United Irishwomen came from the Co-operative Movement whose motto was “Better Farming, Better Business, and Better Living”.Speaking in 1910 the founder of the Co-operative Movement, Horace Plunkett, remarked that the better living would come from the women of Ireland.