A celebration of women in An Garda Siochana will be held in Kilkenny today.
100 serving & retired female members of the force from across the county as well as Carlow, Wexford, Waterford and Tipperary will attend a special ceremony at Langton’s Set Theatre from 2 o’clock.
It’s to mark sixty years of female service across the region.
Supt. Carmel Banville’s based in Thomastown & says there’s good reason to celebrate noting “It’s only since the ninth of July 1959 that the first 12 women were actually taken into An Garda Siochana, up until then there was a ban on women in An Garda Siochana, and since 1959 women have made a huge contribution to An Garda Siochana, they’re now active in all areas of An Garda Siochana and at all ranks I’m delighted to say”.
She adds “Women bring such an additionality to An Garda Siochana, a different perspective, a diversity and I think it’s very important to recognise that only for those first women back in 1959, they paved the way I suppose for the rest of us so really that’s what we’re celebrating today, all of the women in the divisions so we’ve invited them back just to celebrate the progress that we’ve made since then and the pioneering work I suppose that they did for us in order to enable the rest of us to be & become what we are today”.
