IRELAND has officially joined the Space Age after the launch of the first Irish satellite last Friday from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The EIRSAT-1 CubeSat project was pioneered by UCD students, including Maeve Doyle, who started working on the project while studying for her PhD in Astrophysics.

Maeve grew up helping out at her local show, Charleville, and, as her proud father Ian explained in their All In The Family double feature, his and wife Angie’s three children, Maeve, Eoin and Aoife, all first attended Charleville Show in a Moses basket. Under the guidance of mentors Eleanor Fleming, Nora Leahy and current show secretary Elaine Gould, Maeve’s summer job was helping in the Charleville Show office.