UCC to rename building in honour of Ireland's first female botanist

Madeline Hutchins, Ellen's great-great grandniece and the organiser of Bantry's annual Ellen Hutchins Festival.

A Cork woman widely regarded as Ireland's first female botanist is to have a building at University College Cork renamed in her honour.

During her short but distinguished career, Ellen Hutchins, a native of Ballylickey in West Cork, conducted a vast amount of research on cryptograms — non-flowering plants such as seaweeds, lichens, mosses, and liverworts.