Address by President Connolly at the Aleen Cust Memorial Society Conference
Mountbellew Agricultural College, Galway, 3 July 2026
A Chairde Uaisle,
Tá fíor-áthas orm a bheith i bhur gcomhluadar i gColáiste Talmhaíochta an Chreagáin chun tús oifigiúil a chur le Comhdháil bhliantúil Chumann Cuimhneacháin Aleen Cust. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le Donal Connolly as ucht an chuiridh.
Tá tábhacht ar leith leis an ócáid seo agus ceiliúradh á dhéanamh agaibh ar shaol thar a bheith spéisiúil agus spreagúil Aleen Cust.
Today we celebrate the life and work of Aleen Cust, the first woman to become a veterinary surgeon in Ireland and the UK.
“A vet, ever and always”, Aleen Cust knew from a young age that she had a vocation. Ostracised by her family for seeking to realise this ambition, and faced with the disapproval of society, Aleen pursued her dream, completing her veterinary studies in Edinburgh in 1900.
Despite excelling in her studies, even winning a gold medal for zoology in 1897, Aleen was refused membership by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons simply because she was a woman.
Indeed, it was in 1922, almost a quarter of a century after completing her studies – that Aleen was finally accepted by her peers as a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary College of Surgeons.
During the intervening years, amongst many other achievements, Aleen had become not only a highly accomplished vet but also an innovator, inventing the ‘Cust Rope Release Hobbles’ in 1909, an essential piece of equipment for casting horses. Subsequently she established her own practice and then in 1915 got into her car and drove to France to offer her services as a Vet and treat the thousands of wounded horses during World War I.
Reading about her life and achievements, it seems extraordinary that the Royal College has never acknowledged and/or issued an apology for its unfair treatment of Aleen Cust.
There were many points along Aleen’s journey where she might have changed course – pursuing her studies in nursing; losing her family; the refusal of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to admit her, and the subsequent failure of the courts to reverse that decision; the consternation initially directed at her when she began practicing as a vet in Athleague, Co. Roscommon.
However, Aleen persevered, brave and undeterred, no doubt taking inspiration from her Grandmother, Lady Mary Anne Cust, who had travelled the world to draw and paint birds, plants and fish, and wrote a number of books.
Of course, there were other individuals and organisations that stand out for the support they gave Aleen at crucial times in her life. Major Widdrington who encouraged her to pursue her studies; Professor William Williams whose glowing reference helped her secure a position as assistant vet to William Augustine Byrne, who himself went against the grain hiring and championing a woman vet; and indeed Galway County Council who found a way to employ her to fill the post of ‘Veterinarian Inspectorship Mountbellew District’, despite obstacles put in place by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons - an Irish solution to an Irish problem being the ultimate resolution - employed as an ‘Inspector’ without veterinary before it.
Aleen Cust, like so many women, could easily have been written out of history and indeed it seems was until 1990 with the publication of Aleen Cust Veterinary Surgeon: Britain’s First Woman Vet, by Connie M. Ford.
Many years later and following on from that book, the Aleen Cust Memorial Society – founded by vets Donal Connolly, Brendan Gardiner and Ascinta Kilroy, who sadly passed away in 2024 has greatly added to our knowledge and brought this wonderful woman to life.
Indeed, your tenacity over the last 5 years in uncovering – both physically and metaphorically – the story and final resting place in Jamaica of this inspirational woman, has been instrumental in keeping her memory alive and we are truly indebted to you.
Going against the longstanding, systematic erasure of women from history books, and largely thanks to the efforts of the Society, there is now a wealth of resources on Aleen Cust - books, including a workbook in English and Irish that was distributed to all schools in Tipperary, podcasts, videos, a play, a wood carving of her likeness in Tipperary Town (unveiled in 2024), and of course, this wonderful annual conference.
Moreover, the trail blazed by Aleen Cust has led to fundamental changes in the veterinary world.
Just over a century on from her formal recognition by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, in 2024, 51% of veterinary practitioners in Ireland were women – outnumbering men in the profession for the first time. Looking to the future, almost 75% of students who enrolled in veterinary degree courses in Ireland in 2024 were female. Notably, in 2025, Ireland appointed our first ever female Chief Veterinary Officer, June Fanning, who I understand addressed this conference last year.
Significantly also, from September 2026, the Atlantic Technological University will for the first time offer a Bachelor Degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, and I am delighted that one semester will take place here in Mountbellew.
Aleen Cust’s legacy, of course, is much more profound and multifold.
Seo bean chróga, mhisniúil, a lean agus a bhain amach mian a croí ainneoin constaicí ollmhóra agus easpa tacaíochta. Bean nár fhan faoi chois ag dlíthe nó tuairimí a linne.
This was a woman who was not confined by the prevailing norms and laws that institutionalised discrimination and inequality, and that so entrenched the idea that women were inferior. By her actions, and at great personal cost, she wrote her own story and showed us what was and is possible.
Gan dabht, tá go leor le foghlaim againn ón mbean eisceachtúil seo, bean nár ghéill don chúngú, bean nár sheachain an bhearna bhaoil nuair a bhí gá lena cuid seirbhísí tréidliachta le linn an Chead Chogaidh Dhomhanda.
What a remarkable woman and what a legacy she has left us.
It seems to me that that legacy is best honoured by taking courage in our own hands and questioning today’s self-serving narratives that are not in the interests of the common good. Narratives inter alia that seek to normalize war, to convince us that human suffering can somehow be justified or at least ignored in the service of economic interest, and/or that we can have endless growth while still addressing the existential threat posed by climate change.
Now more than ever we need courageous people who have the confidence to step outside of prevailing paradigms, and both reimagine and create a more viable and sustainable world for all of us.
Just this week, the warning from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council that Ireland’s ongoing failure to meet our EU climate targets could cost the exchequer up to 13 billion Euro annually, brought the need for urgent transformative change into acute focus, a commitment that was made when Ireland declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency in May, 2019.
Just over seven years later, the gap between rhetoric and action is of serious concern given the ongoing unassailable scientific facts.
I can think of no better a community than this wonderful Agricultural College, founded in 1904 by the Franciscans Brothers, the first training college of its kind in Ireland (incidentally just two years before Aleen Cust took up her position as an Inspector in 1906,) to lead a public discourse on what transformative change actually means and what it requires of us as a country if the goal is creating an Ireland that is both sustainable and self-sufficient.
Go maire spiorad spreagúil Aleen i gcroílár theagasc thréidlianna na todhchaí agus foireann an Choláiste agus go mba fada buan sibhse, a chairde á chinntiú sin.