Kate Tyrrell

Kate Tyrrell (1863–1921) was an Irish sailor and business woman. Inheriting a shipping company from her father, she captained the schooner Denbighshire Lass for over twenty years, and successfully fought rules forbidding women from having their name listed as the owner of a vessel.

Early life and sailing education Born in 1863 in Arklow, County Wicklow, Kate Tyrrell was the second of four daughters. Her father, Edward Tyrrell, was a sea captain who owned a shipping company that transported cargo between Ireland and Wales. As a child, Tyrrell loved hanging around her father's shipyard; by the time she was twelve, she was filling out shipping journals for him. Tyrrell gradually became indispensable to her father, and as she grew older, Tyrrell's father promised her that she would one day own a ship herself.

Family In 1896, Tyrrell married her childhood friend John Fitzpatrick, and the couple had two children: James, born in 1900, and Elizabeth, born in 1905. In 2018, Tyrrell's career was celebrated in as part of International Women's Day in Arklow.