ICO annual conference May 15-17Remembering female pioneers in the speciality of Ophthalmology on International Women's Day
As we mark this year’s International Women’s Day (March 8th, 2019), the ICO celebrate the many pioneering and influential women in the specialty of Ophthalmology, both here in Ireland and among our international colleagues. In 2018, the College celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the formation of the first national Irish Society of Ophthalmologists, the IOS, the forerunner to the ICO, in 1918.
Historically, women’s participation in the medical profession was significantly restricted and was often a great struggle for a woman to be considered for a medical education. Only the strongest-willed and most dedicated could attain the once-thought impossible medical degree.
Amongst the most notable and influential female figures in ophthalmological circles in Ireland in the past Century was Dr Euphan Montgomerie Maxwell, the first woman ophthalmic surgeon in Ireland and the daughter of Dr Patrick William Maxwell MD FRCSI.
Miss Maxwell was a graduate in medicine and surgery of the University of Dublin and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. She held the position of Assistant Surgeon and Pathologist at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, and was honorary secretary of the British Medical Section of Ophthalmology. She served in the R.A.M.C. 1916 – 1917.
In June 1915, Miss Maxwell was appointed to the Montgomery Lectureship in Ophthalmology by the Board of Trinity College, Dublin and delivered the inaugural Montgomery Lecture.
She became a member of the Irish Ophthalmological Society (IOS) when it was founded in 1918. She delivered the Montgomery Lecture in that same year to the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin on the topic “A survey of cases of concomitant squint in the practice of the late Mr P. W. Maxwell”.
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the early female pioneers in medicine who inspired the many women who followed, and who continue to inspire women today.
Over the past 50 years, ophthalmology has experienced strong female numbers in the training and medical sector of our specialty; however challenges still exist in the conversion to female Consultant Surgeon, which is currently and historically low. It remains an ongoing priority of the College to address any barriers which may exist, and to focus on ensuring all our trainees can aspire to the medical career they wish to embark on.
Ms Patricia Logan, Consultant Ophthalmologist at Beaumont Hospital became the first female President of a Medical Postgraduate Training Body in Ireland when see assumed the role at the Irish College of Ophthalmologists in 2011. Miss Marie Hickey Dwyer, Consultant Ophthalmologist at University Hospital Limerick followed in the role from 2013-2015 and the current President of the ICO is Dr Alison Blake, Medical Ophthalmologist in Cavan General Hospital.
The ICO President Elect for 2019 is Medical Ophthalmologist Dr Patricia Quinlan.
8th March 2019