Well-known American scientist and animal behaviourist Prof. Temple Grandin is to address an event honouring the work of Ireland’s first female vet.
Aleen Cust was the first woman to work as a veterinary surgeon in Ireland and Britain in the early 1900s.
Cust held the controversial post of veterinary inspector in Mountbellew district for Galway County Council from 1905-1915.
The Tipperary-born Anglo-Irish aristocrat, who was admitted to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ register one hundred years ago, initially practiced in Co. Roscommon.
She drove her own car to France in 1915 to help colleagues treat wounded horses during World War I.
After the Rising in Ireland, Cust sold her property in 1924 and moved to southern England where she continued her work.
She died while on a visit to Jamaica in 1937 and rested there, unrecorded, until Mountbellew veterinarian Brendan Gardiner, a member of the Aleen Cust Memorial Society, located the grave last December with the assistance of Brian Denning, the Irish Consul in Kingston.
Galway event
On August 11, academics, veterinarians and historians will gather in Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Mountbellew at the centenary conference honoring the life and work of Aleen Cust.
The two-day event is organised by Galway, Roscommon and Tipperary County Council heritage officers and the local Aleen Cust Memorial Society, supported by ATU.
The idea for the Aleen Cust Centenary Conference was first mooted by local vets Ascinta Kilroy Donal Connolly and Brendan Gardiner who said:
“Aleen Cust has been forgotten. Her legacy needed to be remembered and her name kept in perpetuity. Her resting place was unrecorded and only discovered in December 2021.”
The guest speaker at the event will be celebrated American scientist, neurodiversity exponent and respected animal behaviorist Prof. Temple Grandin.
The author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior, Grandin is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter.
A faculty member of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University, she works as a consultant to the livestock industry and is also an autism spokesperson.
Irish MEP Maria Walsh is set to open the conference, which will also hear from Prof. Siobhan Mullan, the first ever chair of animal welfare and ethics at the University College Dublin (UCD) veterinary school.
The event will be addressed by Meta Osborne, the first female president of the Veterinary Council of Ireland and the first female senior steward of the Turf Club.
The conference will hear about the Cust’s background and the search for her resting place in Jamaica, the historical experience of women in the medical profession, along with a history of the veterinary service of Galway County Council and a talk on old farm cures.
Speaking in advance of the conference, Marie Mannion, Galway County Council heritage officer, said:
“By undertaking this commemorative project, it will assist in creating a greater awareness and knowledge of what Ireland was like one hundred years ago and the hardships, difficulties that people endured and how Aleen’s perseverance triumphed over adversity.
“It will also shed light on the life of one of Ireland’s unsung heroes and ensure that her work, sacrifices and her determination are known by those of us who live in the Ireland of 2022,” she added.