In the period after her release from Gransha Hospital, Molloy worked several dead-end jobs as the civil rights marches began to heat up in the North. A civil rights march, led by the People’s Democracy, began a four-day trek on January 1, 1969, from Belfast City Hall to Derry; Molloy joined the march when it arrived in Dungiven. Molloy was among those ambushed and badly beaten by Protestant Loyalists as marchers tried to cross Burntollet Bridge. Eventually, Molloy moved to Dublin where she met Gerard Brady, her future husband, in August 1970. Molloy and Brady moved to Lancaster on October 10, 1970; they married in April 1971. Molloy gave birth to their first child, Mary, in June 1971. They returned to Derry believing that the worst of the violence in the North had passed; the Troubles had hardly begun. Their son, Joseph, was born in Derry in February 1973. Finally, after Brady endured personal attacks, they left the North for good. They first moved to Dublin but returned to Lancaster three months later. They lived at 42 Gregson Road for most of their married life; Brady went to college while working full-time, and Molloy was a stay-at-home mother for the early years of the children’s lives.