Muire Lally was the first medical graduate from Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak. Graduating just three years after the opening of Loreto Toorak, she was one of few women to undertake a medical degree in the 1920s, Muire went on to establish an influential and community minded career in Queensland, as a highly regarded ‘lady doctor’ at a time when few women entered the medical profession.

Muire Geraldine Lally (known as Moya) was born on 24 March 1910. She grew up in Sandringham, completing her secondary education at Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak. She graduated in 1927 at just 17 years of age, and only three years after the opening of the School in 1924. Muire gained entry to study Medicine at the University of Melbourne. However, her young age forced her to defer her medical studies until 1929, meaning she began her degree in the shadow of the Depression.

Muire was the first Loreto student to graduate in Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1934; only seven of the 41 graduands that year were female graduates. One of her fellow graduands was Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop, who was to later become a war-time legend^.  

Following her graduation, Muire sought to do her Medical Internship in Brisbane, Queensland. While a Resident Medical Officer of the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board, Muire was a member of staff of the Lady Bowen Maternity Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children and the Brisbane General Hospital where she worked with honorary surgeons, physicians and gynaecologists and had experience in infectious diseases and much experience in anaesthesia.  In 1937 she moved to Townsville to do locum work, assisting in a small private hospital where her reputation as a ‘lady doctor’ was well known.

She met Brisbane barrister, Ralph Francis Cormack in Townsville and they were later married at St Patrick's Cathedral Melbourne in January 1938. Following their marriage, Ralph and Muire Cormack lived in Townsville, where she continued to practice under the name of Dr Muire Lally. Following the outbreak of World War II, Muire’s husband Ralph enlisted in 1941 and he was posted to Victoria Barracks, Brisbane, where the Cormack family then remained for the duration of the War.  

The family returned to Townsville in late 1946 but with her family responsibilities, Muire had little time to resume her medical career. She did however retain her registration as a Medical Practitioner until 1994 by which time she was in her early 80s. She was an active member of the Townsville Business and Professional Women's Club, and her personal identity always was still very much that of a 'lady doctor', as well as that of a devoted wife, and a loving mother to her four children. 

Muire died on 23 September 1999.