Page 107 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 9

a long 30-year struggle. Those doing law were in an even smaller
minority, including Fay Kyle and her sister Kathleen and Marion
Duggan. Averil’s friends Kathleen Burgess and Ida May Coffin
Duncan also did law, and both were to be called to the Bar in
London.

Familiar friends were there too - Nina Moore, Evelyn Ross,
Ralph Jack Mecredy and William Featherstonhaugh, (both
medical students).

And it meant more drama - the University Players put on
regular productions of a high standard at the Gaiety Theatre, in
which she took leading roles. Moreover, the author of two of the
plays was Madeline Lucette Ryley, a founder member of the
AFL.

Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association (DUWGA),
set up in 1922, continued to provide close links between the
small group of women graduates. It was affiliated to the
International Federation of University Women. Averil’s friend
Kathleen Burgess attended the 1926 IFUW conference in
Amsterdam as DUWGA delegate, and Averil was due to follow
suit as a delegate to the 1929 Geneva conference. However,
Kathleen, who had become engaged to Averil’s brother William
in May 1929, committed suicide in the following October for
reasons that remain a mystery.

The First World War

The outbreak of war in 1914 saw male Trinity undergraduates
enlist, many already OTC members, and by early 1915, there
were few, if any, students for some classes. This served to
increase the visibility of women: one professor noted his history
classes were reduced to 'four girls and a callow youth.'

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