The five artworks were commissioned in 2015 through an open competition, and completed in 2016.

Vera Klute was the chosen artist to complete the individual portraits of the first four female Members of the Academy, who were elected in 1949, and were pioneers in their respective fields which included: mathematical physics, Irish art history, plant viruses and classical Irish literature.

The fifth artwork is a group portrait of eight female scientists, who were recipients of the European Research Council Starter Grants (2012–2015) and were chosen as representatives of a generation of outstanding contemporary young female scientists working in Ireland. Blaise Smith was the chosen artist who worked with the eight women to produce the portrait.

This pioneering Women on Walls campaign has since extended to other leading academic institutions including the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (2018) and Dublin City University (2020).

The Women on Walls initiative was supported by Accenture.

You cannot be what you cannot see

Learn about the campaign with Accenture

Five of the painted Women on Walls portraits displayed on a white wall, with a graphic stating #WomenOnWalls in black, to the left

The first female Members of the Academy

Painted portrait of a woman with short permed hair on a blue background

Phyllis Clinch (1901–1984)

Award winning scientist Phyllis Clinch, was one of the greatest female inventors of her generation and world renowned for her innovative research into plant viruses.

Painted portrait of a woman with dark permed hair, on a blue background

Sheila Tinney (1918–2010)

A pioneering academic in mathematical physics, Sheila Tinney was described by Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrödinger as ‘among the best equipped and most successful of the younger generation of physicists in this country’.

Painted portrait of a women with short bobbed light coloured hair, wearing glasses

Eleanor Knott (1886-1975)

Eleanor Knott was a "pathbreaking" researcher of classical Irish literature. Having taught herself to read modern Irish, she went on to study old Irish at the School of Irish Learning in Dublin and won a scholarship to continue her studies in 1907.

Painted portrait of a woman with bobbed light coloured hair, against an abstract background

Françoise Henry (1902–1982)

Françoise Henry was one of the most important twentieth-century historians of Irish art. She trained at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne, establishing herself as an expert on very early forms of sculptural decoration, particularly in Early Christian Irish Art.

Eight contemporary female scientists

Professor Sarah McCormack (Trinity College Dublin)
Professor McCormack’s research explores photovoltaic panels which convert solar energy into direct current electricity.

Professor Aoife McLysaght (Trinity College Dublin)
Professor McLysaght is one of Ireland’s leading geneticists and was on the team that analysed the initial sequence of the human genome in 2001. She was also involved in a major discovery about how genes are formed.

Dr Aoife Gowen (University College Dublin)
Dr Gowen investigates how contact with water contributes to fouling or degradation of various synthetic materials, including medical sutures, pacemakers and water filters.

Professor Lydia Lynch (Harvard Medical School moving to Trinity College Dublin)
Professor Lynch’s research has found that a type of anti-tumour immune cell protects against obesity and the metabolic syndrome that leads to diabetes.

Professor Debra Laefer (University College Dublin)
Professor Laefer’s research aims to prevent damage to buildings above tunnel excavation, by developing a 3D modelling system that can predict what buildings are most likely to sustain damage during tunnelling.

Professor Emma Teeling (University College Dublin)
Professor Teeling is a world authority on bat genetics. She studies bats for insights into human diseases such as blindness and deafness as well as aging.

Dr Maria McNamara (University College Cork)
Dr McNamara is a world expert on the fossilization of colour in animals and has conducted ground-breaking work on the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs.

Professor Caitríona Lally (Trinity College Dublin)
Professor Lally is the principal investigator on a project focusing on developing a means of early diagnosis of degenerative cardiovascular diseases. These studies are highly relevant to stroke patients and those with vascular disease.