Iris Cummins

Iris Cummins
Born Iris Ashley Cummins
6 June 1894
Cork, Ireland
Died 30 April 1968 (1968-05-01) (aged 73)
Dublin, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Occupation Engineer

Iris Ashley Cummins (1894–1968) was the first female engineer to graduate UCC and was also an international hockey player.[1][2]

Early life and education

Cummins was born on 6 June 1894 in Woodville, Glanmire, Co. Cork to William Edward Ashley Cummins (1858–1923), professor of medicine at University College Cork, and Jane Constable Cummins (née Hall). They had five daughters and six sons. Geraldine Cummins was a playwright. Jane Cummins was a squadron officer in the WRAF during the World War II and became a medical doctor. Mary Hearn was a gynaecologist and fellow of the RCPI. Two of her brothers also became doctors; one, N. Marshall Cummins, was involved in setting up the first blood transfusion service in Cork.[1][2]

Education

Cummins began to study in UCC in 1912. At that time there were 78 women students out of the 420 students enrolled. She graduated with an engineering degree in 1915. During her time in engineering Cummins was editor of the Journal of the Engineering Society[1][3]

While she was in college, Cummins was on the Ireland hockey team. She earned her first ‘cap’ for hockey in 1914 and lead the college hockey team to victory in the Munster cup. The Irish hockey team toured the USA in 1925 with Cummins as the captain. With the team she went to the White House at the invitation of Calvin Coolidge.[4]

Work

Cummins worked for the Royal Arsenal with the munitions factory at Woolwich, London and then the Vickers factory at nearby Erith as well as in a shipyard in Scotland during the First World War between 1915 and 1916 before returning to Cork. Initially there she found it hard to find work. In 1924 she founded a private practice in the city and worked there until 1927 at which time she was appointed to the Irish Land Commission in Dublin. She moved to Dublin and although she visited, she never returned to live in Cork. She retired from the Land Commission in 1954.[1][2][4] In 1927 Cummins became the first woman member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland.[1][4]

Death

She died 30 April 1968 in Dublin[1]

Further reading

  • Photo of Iris Cummins Engineer
  • Burke, IFR (1976), 308
  • Engineer's Journal, Sept./Oct. 1985, 57
  • Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, ‘Women engineers in early 20th century Ireland’, Engineer's Journal, Dec. 2003, 48–9

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Dictionary of Irish Biography".
  2. 1 2 3 "The peerage". The peerage. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Guys City County Almanac and Directory" (PDF). Cork past and present. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Iris Ashley Cummins (1894–1968) - BE (1915), BSc Honoris Causa (War degree, 1918)".


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