1. Evening Echo, Wednesday, June 22,2016 11
ROLE MODEL: Niamh Ní Chearb-
haill of Spiralli.ie
There’s huge
potential in IT
programme. “I spoke about
the role technology has had in
my life and career,” she says.
“I did my best to open their
eyes to the possibilities and
give them an awareness of
how technology has played a
part in everything around
them.”
The students have
dispersed for the summer
holidays but Niamh is sure
they left contemplating how
her talk may change where
they go from here.
“A session was interesting.
One question was: ‘Why are
there so many more men than
women in technology?’ I
answered that it was simply
down to gender stereotypes;
that there was no good reason
why this should be the case
going forward.
“Charlie Babbage created a
machine that is considered a
precursor to the modern com-
puter and Ada Lovelace cre-
ated the first bit of program-
ming code to go with it.
“To put it another way,
while he was creating the
body, she was creating the
brain.
“There is no such thing as a
girl or boy subject anymore. If
I’d had the option of doing
woodwork, metalwork and
computers at school in the
nineties I would have loved it.
Society is slowly realising that
gender norms are limiting us
and should be dropped.”
Her advice to young women
wishing to break into the
STEM industry is: Explore
your options. Find out what
you are passionate about.
Learn the basics and get ex-
perience. She adds: “The web
can provide most of that right
now so there is nothing stop-
ping you from starting your
career journey today.”
If you would like to act as a
mentor to young women in
Cork schools you can register
at www.verifyrecruitment.
com
And that is exactly what she
did. Niamh first entered the
Science, Technology, Engin-
eering and Mathematics
[STEM] industry quite slowly.
“I started off going to col-
lege to learn basic computer
skills for secretarial work.
Eventually I got a job working
in a document-scanning com-
pany in Texas that led to a job-
creating conference CDs in
Chicago. At that moment my
personal passion — art and
design — converged with my
technical knowledge and it
grew from there.”
But like many, returning to
Ireland was not immediately
lucrative for her career. The
skills she had gained were not
yet valued here and she re-
turned to shop assistant and
secretarial jobs for a time.
“Then I met Ivan O’Donog-
hue. He had been studying
software development and
was interested in program-
ming. Good web design and
development means having a
talent for both programming
code and design. It’s very rare
to find someone who is strong
in both. Together, we made
the perfect team and founded
Spiralli.ie 11 years ago as
equal partners.”
What does a typical day as a
technology leader look like?
“My work day is a mix of
various management tasks,
staf f support, sales and
marketing and of course web
design.
“As a web designer I co-
ordinate with the web devel-
opers to deliver a website that
looks beautiful and functions
well.
“My design team and I take
a client’s brand and message,
and using innovative designs
we make them look profes-
sional, modern and appealing
to the website visitor.
“Projects start off with
notes and drawings, a
foundation is constructed on
which to build pages, and we
dress them with our designs,
picking colours that suit the
company’s brand and creating
layouts and graphics that
reflect the character of the
business. We are currently
working on several websites
for companies that vary from
international transport to
cosmetics.”
Despite her already busy
schedule, Niamh noticed a
post on LinkedIn, the profes-
sional networking site, about
the Ada Lovelace Initiative
and signed up immediately.
“To me, technology means
independence, freedom to
learn and grow, and com-
munications on a global scale.
I think women have huge
potential in the tech world.
There is nothing limiting
them if they have the determi-
nation to succeed.”
Having completed her first
school visit, Niamh would
highly recommend the
Lovelace, the mathematician
and writer who is considered
the world’s first computer
programmer, the scheme was
first launched by Verify Re-
cruitment in Dublin last year
and has reached more than
2,000 students to date.
The volunteer-led project
depends upon the involve-
ment of technology profes-
sionals nationwide to share
their personal stories.
One such role model who
volunteered to speak to the
young women was Niamh Ní
Chearbhaill, Director and
Web Designer of Spiralli.ie, a
website design and develop-
ment company based in
Mallow.
“Technology is a part of
almost everything we do
today,” she says. “Having
technological skills increases
your chances of having a
successful career.
“For every woman in a tech-
nical job, there are three men,
and there is absolutely no rea-
son why this should continue
to be the case. I’m happy to
stand up and show young
women that they are more
than capable of becoming
leaders in technology.”
A
CAMPAIGN to pro-
mote technology-re-
lated careers to female
pupils has expanded to
Cork.
The transition year stu-
dents of St Mary’s Secondary
School in Mallow recently
participated in the Ada Love-
lace Initiative — with further
schools being invited to come
on board from September.
Named in honour of Ada
Women in
technology
are being
invited to
become
mentors to
pupils in
Cork, writes
PAM RYAN
“For every woman in a technical job, there
are three men ... there is absolutely no rea-
son why this should continue ...”
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