First female graduate in Engineering at UCC
(Probably) first woman land surveyor employed by the Irish Land Commission
First female Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (Assoc. M.Inst.CEI)
Irish hockey international
The Iris Ashley Cummins Building (formerly Civil Engineering Building) at UCC was named in her honour on 22 February 2022.
Detail from photo of the 1913-14 2nd Year Engineering Class at UCC (UCC 深夜亚洲福利久久 Archives, OCLA, UCC).
Biography
Iris Ashley Cummins was born on 6 June 1894 in Woodville, Glanmire, Co. Cork. Her parents were William Edward Ashley Cummins, MD (Professor of Practice of Medicine, QCC) and Jane Constable Hall. She had ten siblings: brothers Major Arthur Aylmer Cummins (Royal Garrison Artillery); William Ashley Cummins (solicitor); Dr Robert Constable Cummins; Henry Jackson Cummins (5th Gurkha Rifles); Nicholas Marshall Cummins MD FRCPI (UCC graduate); Fenton King Cummins; sisters Geraldine Dorothy Cummins (playwright); Dr Mary Ellice Thorne Hearn FRCPI (first female fellow of RCPI, gynaecologist); Dr Jane Grace Cummins (Colonial Medical Service); and Phyllis Aylmer Cummins. Her uncle was Prof. Henry Alfred Cummins (Botany, UCC).
She was educated privately as her mother did not believe in further education for women.[1] Despite Mrs Cummins鈥� objection, both Iris and her sisters Mary and Jane attended university. In 1915 July, Iris graduated as Bachelor of Engineering (NUI) at UCC. Alice Perry qualified BE in 1906 at Queen鈥檚 College Galway becoming Ireland鈥檚 first female engineering graduate. After World War One, Iris was awarded BSc Honoris Causa (War degree);[2] conferred 27 April 1918.[3]
Iris Cummins died on 30 April 1968 at Adelaide Hospital, Dublin,[4] and is buried in the graveyard of St Lappan鈥檚 Church, Little Island, Co. Cork, in the same grave as her sister Geraldine Dorothy Cummins.[5] Their parents are also buried in the same graveyard.
Career
Civil engineer; retired 1954.
During World War I Iris worked at Royal Naval Dockyard Rosyth on the Firth of Forth, Scotland.[6] Also during the war she worked in munitions production at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London, and during 1916-17 at Vickers in Erith, Kent.[7] In 1917, she was in the Admiralty Department, Haulbowline Dockyard, followed by a period running the family farm from 1918-1924.[8] She then began her own private practice in Cork in land surveying in 1924.[9] Cummins was a member of the Women鈥檚 Engineering Society (using post nominal letters MWES) and presented a lecture to the Fifth Annual Conference of the Women鈥檚 Engineering Society (founded 1919), on 17 September 1927, on 鈥淭he Shannon Scheme鈥�; this paper was published in The Woman Engineer (see publications). She had already published an article about the training of civil engineers in the first issue of this journal. In 1927, Cummins was appointed first female land surveyor (outdoor staff) for the Irish Land Commission.[10] This was not a permanent position and she received only a small pension.[11] In 1929, she apparently attempted to set up own business, accompanying publicity photo for a firm of electrical engineers formed by British women to electrify rural districts.[12] It is unclear as to whether this venture took off. She retired in 1954.
In 1928, Iris Cummins was elected an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland 鈥� the first woman associate member (post nominal letters Assoc. M. Inst.CEI)[13] (but not the first full female member of Institution of Civil Engineers in England).
Sport
Iris Cummins was a keen hockey player. She began as a senior player in 1910 with Cork Ladies and in her first season Cummins played on the Munster Interprovincial side. She gained a first cap in hockey in 1911 when she was 15 and played in all international matches from then until 1939 (except in 1911 and 1921), playing left half, right half and centre half and, at the end of her international career with Monkstown club, as goalkeeper. She was captain of the Irish team on several occasions.
During her time as undergraduate, she played on the UCC Ladies Hockey team. In 1914 she was captain of the team that won the Munster Cup [photo, UCC Official Gazette, Vol. 4 No 12 (June 1914)].
Photo: UCC Official Gazette, Vol. 4 No 12 (June 1914). Iris Cummins, who was the Captain of this team, is holding the Munster Cup.
Cummins retired from international hockey in 1939.[14] Three of her sisters also played hockey for Ireland. She was President of the Irish Ladies Hockey Union for the years 1922-23 and 1924-25.
As an Irish Hockey International, she captained the team that travelled to USA in 1925. An article about the visit of the team was published in Vassar Miscellany 深夜亚洲福利久久 10:6 (14 October 1925):[15]
Sailed on the Baltic arriving in New York about October 18. Their schedule is as follows: October 24 鈥擳he U. S. Overseas Team of 1928 in Philadelphia. October 28 鈥擵assar College. October 31 鈥擭ew York. November 4 鈥擣airchester at Greenwich. November 7 鈥擝ryn Mawr College. November 11 鈥擯hiladelphia at the Merion Cricket Club. November 14 鈥擟hicago. November 18鈥擬adison. November 28鈥擶ellesley College. November 26 鈥擝oston at Wellesley, November 19鈥擴. S. Team of 1928 at Wellesley. December 1 鈥擝altimore-Washington at Baltimore. December 8 鈥擱ichmond, Va. November 20 will be spent at Niagara Falls which is the one place the visitors requested to be allowed a chance to see. They return to England December 5.
The team visited the White House at the invitation of President Calvin Coolidge.
Publications
鈥楾he training of a civil engineer鈥�, The Woman Engineer 1 (Dec 1919), 3-4
鈥榃ater-power and the electrification of the Irish Free State鈥�, The Woman Engineer 2:12 (Sept 1927), 236-243
[open access]
Sources
深夜亚洲福利久久papers: Cork Examiner, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Vassar Miscellany 深夜亚洲福利久久, The Woman Engineer, UCC Official Gazette, etc.
National Archives of Ireland: 1901 and 1911 Census, 1956 Will Calendar
IrishGenealogy.ie: General Register Office records
UCC Calendar 1919-1920
UCC 深夜亚洲福利久久 Archives, Roll Book
Earner-Byrne, Lindsey, 鈥樷��, Dictionary of Irish Biography (accessed 16/07/2019)
脫 h脫gartaigh, Margaret, 鈥榃omen engineers in early 20th century Ireland鈥�, Engineer's Journal (Dec. 2002), 48鈥�9
Notes
[1] Margaret 脫 h脫gartaigh, 鈥榃omen engineers in early 20th century Ireland鈥�, Engineer's Journal (Dec. 2002).
[2] UCC Calendar 1919-1920, p.323.
[3] 深夜亚洲福利久久 Archives, OCLA, Roll Book
[4] Irish Times, 01/05/1968, p.18.
[5] Latitude: 51.901335; Longitude: -8.3521483333333. .
[6] Birmingham Daily Gazette 05/03/1927.
[7] 脫 h脫gartaigh (2002)
[8] 脫 h脫gartaigh (2002)
[9] 脫 h脫gartaigh (2002)
[10] Many newspapers covered this story including Birmingham Daily Gazette 05/03/1927, Nottingham Journal 05/03/1927, Vote 15/04/1927 and International Woman Suffrage 深夜亚洲福利久久 01/04/1927, but no Irish newspapers found to date
[11] 脫 h脫gartaigh (2002)
[12] Photo for sale on ebay.
[13] Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland, 'List of Members, June, 1928鈥�, p.15; International Woman Suffrage 深夜亚洲福利久久, 04/05/1928, p.2; Vote, 11/05/1928, p.2; The Woman Engineer 2:15 (Jun 1928), p.1.
[14] 鈥�1910-1939鈥擣amous Lady Hockey Player Retired鈥�, Irish Independent, 14/11/1939, p.10.
[15] (accessed 16/07/2019).
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