From the Liberator (Tralee), 8 June 1926, the above heartwarming story of a counsel without wig and gown being allowed by a kind-hearted judge to address the court nonetheless. Not all judges were or are so tolerant!

Wig-wearing is no longer compulsory for barristers, but gowns and white covering around the neck in the form of a bib/tabs are still required.

An interesting feature of this story is that the barrister was female. When women were first called to the bar a few years earlier, the pompadour hairstyle was still popular, but by 1926 it had been replaced by the bob and even the shingle. There were stories in the English papers about women barristers having to have their wigs resized to accommodate smaller heads due to lack of hair.

Also highlighted is the rumour that wigs contribute to baldness.

The term ‘lady barrister’, first claimed by an Irish female lay litigant in the 19th century and initially applied by the press to female members of the bar, came to be seen as a denigration of their professional skill, resulting in the displacement of ‘lady’ by ‘woman’.