Irving made her London debut at the Lyceum Theatre in 1890 as Daisy in Nancy and Company.

[1] In 1894, she signed a three-year contract with the manager of the Lyceum Theatre in New York, stipulating "for the first time in her short career on stage," that she shall have "leading business.

[3] She made her New York stage debut in c. 1886[4][5] at the Standard Theatre in The Schoolmistress under Rosina Vokes.

[6] In 1899, after a secret engagement, Irving married the actor William H. Thompson who died in 1923.

[7][8] She retired from her long career in theater in 1936 after completing her final tour in Three Wise Fools.