Unsung heroines of science recalled

SCIENCE WEEK IRELAND:REBELLIOUS DOCTORS, early rock stars and a pioneer of plant viruses were among the Irish women scientists of yesteryear celebrated in a series of weekend talks in Dublin as part of Science Week.

The event, Lab Coats and Lace, highlighted unsung heroines in Irish science, and ties in with a book of the same name on the subject to be published next year.

"It's about celebrating the work that has been done by a great number of Irish women scientists over the last couple of centuries who have not generally been given the recognition," said science writer and broadcaster Mary Mulvihill, the book's editor.

She was speaking ahead of the talks on Saturday, hosted by the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, and Women in Technology and Science (Wits).

"These women ploughed difficult furrows. In the 20th century you had a lot of institutional and social barriers to women doing science," said Ms Mulvihill.

"It was even harder for Victorian women. If you even think how difficult it was, given the clothes they wore, to work in a lab or go out and do fieldwork, they did tremendous things despite the conventions of the day, and it's great to honour them."

Saturday's talks covered a round-up of rebellious women doctors who had been involved in the 1916 Rising. One, Dorothy Price, was later involved in introducing a vaccine against TB in Ireland.

"She really did tremendous work in the fight against TB but she has been overlooked in the rush to credit Noel Browne and the other medical men, and we want to reclaim some of that," said Ms Mulvihill.

Of other women who pioneered in geology, she added: "They were active in the late 1800s when it would have been very unusual to be out with a hammer, getting lumps of rock and putting together a picture of how Ireland was shaped during the Ice Age."

And among the scientific sisters being celebrated were two actual sisters - daughters of the Irish mathematician George Boole. Lucy was one of the first women professors of chemistry, while Alicia characterised a mathematical shape called a polytope.

Attendees also heard the biography of plant-virus expert Phyllis Clinch, who became the only woman to win the prestigious Boyle Medal for scientific excellence.

"The crop breeders of Ireland owe her a tremendous debt, yet her name isn't really well known," said Ms Mulvihill.

Lab Coats and Lace, which includes contributions from Irish Times journalists, is published by Wits next March.