From the Free Press (Wexford) of 3 February 1923, this is the first newspaper report of a woman barrister moving a matter in a court of the Irish Free State.
The woman was, of course, Averil Deverell BL, one of the first two women to be called to the Irish Bar in in 1921, and the court was the Probate Court of the High Court.
According to the judge, Mr Justice Dodd, Averil won the application ‘on her merits, and not on outside grounds.’ Some might say this did not need saying, as it would hardly have been vouchsafed regarding a male barrister, but a well-intentioned comment nonetheless!
Frances Kyle BL, from Belfast, called to the Irish bar at the same time as Ms Deverell, had already made her first appearance in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Northern Ireland in December 1921. This seems to have been the first appearance by a woman advocate in the new Northern Ireland courts. According to this report in the Belfast Telegraph of 20 December 1921, she also got her order!
The next reported appearance by a woman barrister in the superior courts of the Irish Free State, also provoking judicial compliments, was that of Frances Moran BL, later the first Irish woman Senior Counsel, opposing an application to transfer a case from the High Court to the Circuit Court. According to this report from the Freeman’s Journal, 27 November 1924, the application was successful, but Mr Justice O’Shaughnessy complimented Frances on her unsuccessful opposition, which he said was ‘very well done’.
It must have been particularly stressful for early women barristers starting their careers, knowing that even minor matters they appeared in were liable to be reported because of their gender. On the other hand, this leaves us with a more detailed record of the matters in which they appeared than would otherwise be the case. Wicklow and Wexford newspapers were particularly assiduous in reporting Ms Deverell’s cases.
One issue which was struggled with in the early days of women barristers was what to call them instead of ‘my Learned Brother’. ‘My Learned Sister’ was the obvious answer, but the question still provoked newspaper discussion. This article below, from the Westminster Gazette of 26 January 1922, was provoked by Ms Kyle’s first court appearance.
Images Credit: British Newspaper Archives
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