Speech by President Higgins at a Reception to Mark 100 Years of Women in Law

President Michael D. Higgins hosted a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin to mark the centenary of the calling of the first women to the Bar in Ireland. On 1 November 1921, Frances Kyle and Averil Deverell were called to the Bar, the first women to achieve this either in Ireland or Britain. In the year of her call to the Bar, Frances Kyle achieved first place in her Bar examinations, while Averil Deverell was the first woman to practise as a barrister on either island.