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Micheline Sheehy Skeffington

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Micheline Sheehy Skeffington
Born1953 (age 70–71)
Occupation(s)Botanist, equity advocate
EmployerUniversity of Galway (1980–2014)
Organization(s)Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (President, 2022–2024)
Known forBotany; winning a landmark Equality Tribunal case against the University of Galway in 2014
Parent(s)Andrée Denis and Owen Sheehy-Skeffington
RelativesFrancis Sheehy-Skeffington and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington

Micheline Sheehy Skeffington (born 1953)[1] is an Irish botanist and equity advocate.[2][3] Elected President of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland in November 2022, she was the third woman and second Irish person to hold the position since the Society's founding in 1836.[4][5][6][7]

Life

[edit]

Micheline Sheehy Skeffington was born in 1953, the daughter of Andrée and Owen Sheehy-Skeffington,[8] and the granddaughter of Francis and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.[9][10][11]

Sheehy Skeffington is a plant ecologist, with an interest in terrestrial ecosystems.[2] She conducted research aimed at understanding and conserving the important plant habitats that are left in the west of Ireland including turloughs, sand dunes, peatlands, the Shannon callows, the Burren, grasslands, heathlands, woodlands and montane communities, and research on sustainable farming for conservation in Cuba, Indonesia and Chiapas, Mexico. .[2] She was appointed to The Heritage Council 1995–2000, and chaired the Council Wildlife Committee 1999–2000.[2] She worked at the University of Galway for 34 years, joining in 1980 as a lecturer.[10][12] In 1984, with Peter Wyse Jackson, she published The Flora of Inner Dublin.[5]

In 2014, Sheehy Skeffington won a landmark Equality Tribunal case against the university after it was found she lost out on a promotion on the basis of her gender.[3] She told The Irish Times that her "family history of trying to address injustice was part of the reason" she took the case:

I believed I was representing discrimination against women in general. I have it in the genes. If I see an injustice I have to do something about it.[10]

The university was ordered to promote Sheehy Skeffington to senior lecturer from July 2009 (the year in which she was denied the promotion on which the case was based), to pay the salary difference in full, and to award her €70,000.[10] They were also ordered to review their policies and procedures.[10] The case was the first successful win of its kind in Ireland or the UK.[11]

Sheehy Skeffington took early retirement from the University of Galway in September 2014.[10]

Sheehy Skeffington donated the €70,000 award to five other women academics who were also passed over for promotion, beginning "Micheline’s Three Conditions Campaign", aiming to secure their promotions.[13] From 2018, with journalist Rose Foley, she wrote the story of the campaign in Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won.[13][14]

Sheehy Skeffington’s most recent research concerns Ireland’s Lusitanian flora, 16 plant species which occur only in the west or south west of Ireland that have a striking disjunct distribution, with their nearest or principal other occurrence in north Spain. They are generally believed to be native to Ireland and include such iconic species as Strawberry Tree, Large flowered Butterwort, St Patrick’s Cabbage, Kerry Lilly and Irish Orchid.[15] Her initial publication on Mackay’s Heath, assembled evidence to show this species had probably been introduced originally through carriage on smuggled goods hidden amongst heathland on their route inland from the west coast.[16][17] This hypothesis was confirmed by a genetic study by Fagúndez [18] that showed that populations had limited variability and no unique haplotypes, consistent with a recent introduction, and that each population was more closely related to a different population in Spain, consistent with each being introduced through separate smuggling trips. Sheehy Skeffington went on to show how each of the five other heathland Lusitanain species were also probably introduced by man, but only two of them through smuggling and at least one of them prior to historical times.[19][20] Her work on another Lusitanian species, Strawberry Tree has shown how this was probably introduced approximately 4,200 years ago by miners working the first copper mine in northern Europe which was on Lough Leane near Killarney in south west Ireland and how this introduction was referred to in Irish mythology.[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Micheline Sheehy Skeffington (b. 1953) | Irish Life & Lore". 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  2. ^ a b c d "Micheline Sheehy Skeffington - University of Galway". www.universityofgalway.ie. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  3. ^ a b "'There's nothing wrong with women . . . We are more than capable'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  4. ^ Bsbi, Louise Marsh (2024-01-30). "BSBI News & Views: Interview with BSBI President Micheline Sheehy Skeffington: Part One". BSBI News & Views. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  5. ^ a b "BSBI trustees – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland". Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  6. ^ Murray, Anja (2023-03-15). "Biodiversity or biomonotony: we know what needs to be done, now we just need to do it". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  7. ^ "Micheline Sheehy Skeffington's tale gives hope to female academics everywhere". www.independent.ie. 2023-11-26. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  8. ^ "Death of Ms Andree Sheehy Skeffington". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  9. ^ "Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington film part 1 - Joe Lee". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  10. ^ a b c d e f "Micheline Sheehy Skeffington: 'I'm from a family of feminists. I took this case to honour them'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  11. ^ a b "Lecturer's story of gender discrimination case against NUIG and four-year campaign for five other women". BreakingNews.ie. 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  12. ^ "Make Rights Real | Equality Tribunal Hearing Found in my Favour: Micheline's Story". web.archive.org. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  13. ^ a b Reporter (2024-01-22). "Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington will visit Tipperary to speak about landmark gender equality case". www.tipperarylive.ie. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  14. ^ Admin, Writing IE (2023-11-06). "Writing of Micheline's Three Conditions by Rose Foley". Writing.ie. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  15. ^ Irish Wildlowers: Lusitanian flora. https://www.irishwildflowers.ie/lusitanian.html
  16. ^ Sheehy Skeffington, M. and Van Doorslaer, L. 2015. Distribution and habitats of Erica mackayana and Erica × stuartii: New insights and ideas regarding their origins in Ireland. New Journal of Botany, 5: (3), 164-177
  17. ^ Sheehy Skeffington, M. 2017. An alien immigrant? The story of Mackay’s Heath, Erica mackayana, in Ireland. Moorea, 17: 61-70. https://www.irishgardenplantsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Moorea-Journal-17-amended-17th-Jan-1.pdf
  18. ^ Fagúndez, J. & Díaz-Tapia, P. 2023. Comparative phylogeography of a restricted and a widespread heather: genetic evidence of multiple independent introductions of Erica mackayana to Ireland from northern Spain. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 201 (3): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boac071
  19. ^ Sheehy Skeffington, M. & Scott, N.E., 2023. Were the five rare heathers of the west of Ireland introduced through human activity? An ecological, genetic, biogeographical and historical assessment. British & Irish Botany 5(2): 221-251. https://doi.org/10.33928/bib.2023.05.221
  20. ^ Lupton, D & Sheehy Skeffington, M. 2020 A review of the ecology and status of the Kerry Lily Simethis mattiazzii (S. planifolia) Asphodelaceae in Ireland. British & Irish Botany 2 (4) 309-334. https://doi.org/10.33928/bib.2020.02.309
  21. ^ Sheehy Skeffington, M. & Scott, N.E., 2021. Is the Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo (Ericaceae), native to Ireland, or was it brought by the first copper miners? British & Irish Botany 3 (4): 385-418. https://doi.org/10.33928/bib.2021.03.385
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