1975-76 Ethna Gaffney (No 23)

Professor Ethna O'Malley Gaffney B.Sc., Ph.D. was the daughter of Michael O'Malley (Chieftain No 8) of Barna Co Galway and Christina Ryan of Taghmon, Co Wexford. She graduated in Chemistry from University College Galway in 1940 and worked for the Medical Research Council from 1941 to 1944, when she was awarded her Ph.D. in biochemistry. She inaugurated a a Dietetics course in St. Mary's College of Domestic Science in 1944 an remained there until 1947, when she married James Gaffney, Lecturer in Trinity College Dublin. They had three children. After her husband's death in 1952, she worked in the Medical Research Laboratories in Trinity College, Dublin and was appointed an extern examiner in Chemistry and Physics in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in the same year. In 1954 she became a lecturer in Chemistry in RCSI and was the first woman to be appointed as a Professor there in 1961. She held the position of Professor of Chemistry up to her retirement in 1988. She was elected Chieftain No 23 of the O'Malley Clan in 1975, again the first woman to hold the position, and held her rally on Clare Island in 1976. Her family contributed many Chieftains to the Clan, including her father Michael (No 8), her uncle Conor (No 2), her brothers Eoin (No 14) and Peter (No 32) and her sister Sheila Mulloy (No 40).