In other languages, irony is saying one word for another. Basically, you can stretch the meaning. In English, it seems to mean something different: a fuzzy oxymoron-like thing. If this is wrong, sorry, not a native English speaker here.
Irony went from 'sarcasm based humor' to 'humorously coincidental' in colloquial english.
No, appropriate would be if she made a professional observation about her field. A professional realising they're personally doing "their" thing wrong - from a professional point of view at least - is indeed ironic.
Did the definition of irony change, too?