The extraordinary life and achievements of Galway woman, Emily Anderson will be the subject of a lecture to beheld next Monday night, March 11, in the city’s Harbour Hotel. The speaker is Dr Jackie Uí Chionna, and the lecture, which starts at 8pm,  is under the auspices of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society.

Emily Anderson was a daughter of the President of Queen’s College Galway –  later UCG, NUIG and most recently the University of Galway.

During World War I she worked as a codebreaker for British intelligence, and was one of the few women who was retained to work in intelligence during the inter-war period. She then served as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, winning an OBE for her work.

Anderson was known as an exceptional musicologist, but her professional life as Britain’s greatest female codebreaker remained secret until the recent publication of her biography by Galway historian Jackie Uí Chionna.

Dr Uí Chionna teaches history at the University of Galway, and her previous books include a biography of Máirtín Mór McDonogh, and An Oral History of University College Galway, 1930-1980.

The lecture is free and all are welcome.

Pictured: Emily Anderson.