Tom and Victoria Quigley will celebrate Engineers Week in their Ballincollig home with their three children Kate, Liam and Tom Jnr. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Celebrating Engineers Week in Ballincollig home

A husband and wife who are juggling engineering careers and co-parenting from home will be celebrating Engineers Week a little bit differently this year.

Victoria and Tom Quigley both work in Irish Water’s asset planning team in roles that put them at the fore of wastewater engineering in Ireland.

This year, the couple will celebrate Engineers Week from their home in Ballincollig where they have been working and home-schooling their three children over the past year.

The couple, who met at work back in 2002 and were married in 2010, are usually based in Irish Water’s Mallow office.

Victoria, who studied at CIT, says her work on the Cork city and Ballincollig drainage network projects are of particular interest to her.

She said: “Surveys and CCTV footage of sewer networks reveal the incredible workmanship of those who culverted the waterways back in the early 1800s. They have even revealed some unusual ‘rebel’ residents, like a seal who made a home in one of the outfalls to the River Lee,” she said.

Victoria’s work involves collaborating with colleagues in technical design companies, as well as with local authority staff, caretakers and surveying contractors across the country.

Her husband Tom, a Tipperary native, works in future planning and deciding where capital investment is made.

“My role allows me to virtually meet and discuss challenging issues with a wide range of colleagues every day. I collaborate with colleagues across Irish Water and local authorities to deliver improvements where they are needed most. It’s always interesting and no two days are ever the same,” he said.

When Victoria graduated in 2002, there was only one other girl in her class of 40 people, and she said she was very happy to see science, technology, engineering and maths subjects on a par in both the all-boys’ and all-girls’ schools her two school-aged children now attend.

“It is really encouraging to see how the gender balance in engineering has changed for the better over the past 20 years. Long may it continue,” she said.

Victoria and Tom have experienced first-hand how the pandemic has changed the way professionals deliver their work.

“It’ll be interesting to see if the pandemic will result in permanent changes to the way we work. Initially working from home was an unexpected and bizarre experience. We joked about whether we were ‘working from home’ or ‘living at work,” he concluded.

For more visit water.ie/engineersweek.