Upon returning to London in 1931, Cockburn made her debut as a debutante and started her studies at the Westminster School of Art.

[1][2] Cockburn accepted a brief from the Royal Geographical Society to compile an etymological report on the dialects of central Africa.

Having returned to London, Cockburn was preparing to rejoin her son in Cork when Darrell had an accident that resulted in blood poisoning.

Cockburn grew tired of London, and in 1947, the family returned to Cork, where her brother and parents were living.

Having initially lived in Myrtle Grove, the Cockburns moved into Brook Lodge, a Georgian house nearby.

Cockburn installed a cesspit and created a garden, as well as schooling ponies she purchased from Travellers and sold on to buyers in England.

She began making shell pictures, a form of art that had been popular in the 18th century but had fallen out of fashion.

Encouraged by her friends, Desmond Guinness and Norah McGuinness, Cockburn took it up professionally, exhibiting in Ireland and New York.

[1] When the lease on Brook Lodge ended in 1980, the Cockburns moved to a smaller property in Ardmore, County Waterford.

She was buried beside her husband in the graveyard of the Collegiate Church of St Mary Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother.