It was the first call to the Bar since the Irish Republic had become independent, and was almost a year before the first woman was called to the English Bar. It made headlines in Dublin, New York, London, and India.
Frances Kyle had come first in the Bar Entrance Examinations, and was the first woman to win the prestigious Brooke Scholarship, which the Irish Times described as “a women’s invasion of the law”, but that women in the law suited the “adventurous spirit of the age”. Averill Deverell was called on the same day, and became the first woman to practice at the Bar, and worked tirelessly for gender equality. <
