Inspiring UCC graduate is the first woman to have a campus building named after her 

Iris Ashley Cummins: Graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from UCC in 1915.

To mark International Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, University College Cork has named the civil engineering building after its first female engineering graduate, Iris Ashley Cummins.

It is the first time a building on campus has been named after a woman, but it is expected other female pioneers will be honoured in the same way as part of the university’s stated aim to place equality at the heart of its activities.

“This is a very special day for science, technology, engineering and mathematics at UCC,” said Professor Sarah Culloty, head of College of Science, Engineering and Food Science.

“By elevating the legacy of women like Iris Ashley Cummins, we hope we can encourage our female students to pursue exciting and rewarding careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

"Generations of UCC students can now find inspiration in Iris’s remarkable story and be motivated to follow in her ambitious footsteps.” 

Her grand-nephew, Dan Hearn, said: “We are honoured that University College Cork has decided to name this building after our relative Iris Ashley Cummins. 

"Iris and her family had strong links to the university, and it makes us very proud to see her memory being kept alive in this way.”

I think she would have been especially pleased to know that this is the first of UCC’s buildings to be named after a female pioneer.

Iris Ashley Cummins was born in Glanmire, Cork, in 1894 and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from UCC in 1915. 

She went on to become Ireland’s first female land surveyor with the Irish Land Commission and was the first female associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland.

She was also an accomplished hockey player, representing UCC and Ireland at senior level. In 1925, she captained the Irish hockey team during a seven-week tour of America.

In later years, she encouraged women to follow in her footsteps, saying she had never been discriminated against on the basis of her gender.

She noted that there was an abundance of work during World War One as “countless ideas and ancient prejudices had to be scrapped” and she urged women to keep that door open so that things would not revert to “a pre-war state of affairs”.

During the war, she worked at the Royal Naval Dockyard Rosyth in Scotland as well as at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London, and the Admiralty Department, Haulbowline, Cork. 

She worked for a number of years on the family farm before setting up her own private practice in 1924. Three years later, she joined the Land Commission and worked there until her retirement in 1954.

Speaking of the significance of naming a building after her, UCC president Professor John O’Halloran said: “Iris is an exemplar for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." 

She was an independent and creative thinker whose pioneering actions challenged the gender norms of her day. 

"We are proud of her achievements, and we hope that everyone who passes through the doors of the Iris Ashley Cummins building will find inspiration in her legacy.

“You cannot be, what you cannot see, and this is another important step in providing role models for our community."