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99 years today since Frances “Fay” Kyle & Averil Deverell became the 1st women admitted to the Bar in Ireland, having been the 1st ever women students @KingsInns. Both have fascinating stories:see Liz Goldthorpe @TheInnerTemple https://www.innertemple.org.uk/women-in-law/pioneering-women-in-law/frances-kyle/ & https://www.innertemple.org.uk/women-in-law/pioneering-women-in-law/averil-deverill/ 1/ https://twitter.com/thisdayirish/status/1322795509304602624
They were true trailblazers, called to the Bar 6 months before Ivy Williams became the first woman called in England & Wales (May 1922) & a year before Helena Normanton was called (Nov 1922) (she then became the first woman to practise as a barrister in England). 2/
The details in Liz Goldthorpe’s meticulously researched blogs are wonderful, incl Averil serving in France as an ambulance driver; her cousin being one of the women called in E&W in 1922; Fay topping the class in her Bar finals. Hard to read without whooping every paragraph. 3/
The day of their call was remarkable, too, as Liz Goldthorpe explains; the first call day of an Irish Bar divided into separate jurisdictions for Dublin & Belfast. I love that Fay was called in Belfast a week later, too, given uncertainty over the status of the Dublin call. 4/
Great detail in this @KingsInns blog on their centenary celebrations (with @LawSocIreland @iwla_ie @TheBarofIreland) marking the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919: the 1st women in many professions were Irish! Mná na hEireann have long been a force to be reckoned with... 5/
The full @KingsInns blog (extract screengrabbed above) is here (no individual author’s name to credit), & see further #CelebratingACentury & read Dr Mary McAleese’s powerful speech (also at this link): https://www.kingsinns.ie/culture-the-arts/celebrating-a-century 6/
Today, 1 November, I am thinking of these two remarkable women, Fay Kyle & Averil Deverell, & the importance of their call day 99 years ago. Here they are outside the Four Courts, making international headlines. All of us who have followed in their footsteps owe them so much. 7/7
