Ms Edel Cosgrave studied medicine in the National University of Ireland Galway. She joined the Ophthalmology department at University Hospital Cork where she did her basic surgical training and a period of research. Her specialist registrar training in Ophthalmology took place in the Cambridge and East Anglia region of the UK including rotations in Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, the Ipswich Hospital and the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St.Edmunds. During this time she also completed a fellowship in Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus which included a weekly paediatric clinic at Moorfields Eye Hospital London. She also completed a further 12 month fellowship in Paediatric Ophthalmology at the Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester. Ms Cosgrave worked as a Consultant Ophthalmologist with a special interest in paediatric ophthalmology in Harrogate and York Hospitals in North Yorkshire for a period of 4 years before returning to Ireland with her family in 2014.

Ms. Cosgrave is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at University College Cork.