Stars, Shells and Bluebells celebrates the life of:  (page 2)

* Mary Delany, who defied her aristocratic family to marry a good man from humble origins, taught herself by dissecting plants and flowers and made botanically accurate paper collages of their structures (associated with Counties Down and Dublin); 

* Ellen Hutchins, a young botanist who reluctantly gave her name to non-flowering plants such as lichens and liverworts (from County Cork); 

* Anne and Mary Ball, dedicated sisters motivated by curiosity who contributed to the knowledge of Irish flora and fauna (from Cobh, Co. Cork); 

* Mary, Countess of Rosse, early photographer and benefactor who recorded the construction in the 1840s of the largest telescope in the world at Birr, Co. Offaly (Birr, Co. Offaly); 

* Mary Ward, an early pioneer of the microscope, best-selling author, artist and nature-lover who died young in what may have been the world's first automobile accident (Birr, Co. Offaly); 

* Agnes Mary Clerke, whose writings explained and promoted astronomy and are still an indispensable historical reference today (Skiberreen, Co. Cork) - crater on the Moon was recently named after her; 

* Margaret Huggins, who in collaboration with her husband laid the foundations for the development of astrophysics (Dublin and London); 

* Matilda Knowles, who worked tirelessly to discover, collect and catalogue many of the lichens of Ireland (Counties Antrim and Dublin); 

* Maude Jane Delap, a marine biologist who helped untangle the complex life cycle of the medusa (jelly-fish) (Counties Donegal and Kerry); 

* Annie Massy, the somewhat mysterious bird-lover, eminent marine biologist and international mollusc expert (Counties Limerick, Wicklow and Dublin); * Anastasia or Kathleen King, Ireland's leading expert in mosses for many years and a key contributor to the Irish scientific heritage housed in the National Herbarium (Dublin); 

* Sophie Pierce, intrepid aviator and athlete who successfully campaigned to have women admitted to athletics in the Olympic Games (born in Co. Limerick); 

* Cynthia Longfield, international dragonfly expert and fearless explorer who practised her science in many corners of the world(born in Cloyne, Co. Cork);

* Evelyn Mary Booth, early environmentalist, collector of seeds for the National Botanical Gardens and author of the Flora of County Carlow (Counties Wicklow and Wexford) and 

* Eileen Barnes, whose accurate and detailed illustrations were a vital contribution to important botanical studies (Dublin), 

* plus a short note on two fascinating women from Northern Ireland, Alice Everett and Annie Russell, who worked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and were among the first ever professional women astronomers in Britain (pp70-71). 

Stars, Shells and Bluebells - women scientists and pioneers; published by WITS (Women in Technology and Science) November 1997; 180 pages, 46 black and white illustrations, price £4.95 paperback (ISBN 0-9531953-0-9). 

The book is now out of print, but a copy should be available through your local public library. 

Readership: general public; schools; students of Irish cultural studies and history, women's studies and the sciences.