‘It was a matter of getting a job’

SARAH O’Sullivan was 22 years old when she joined the Garda Síochána in July 1959, but making history was not on her mind at the time.

“It was a matter of getting a job,” the Co Longford native said yesterday. “In ’59, there were no jobs.

“I was the fourth eldest in a family of 10 and all those younger than me were still going to National School, so we had to move out of the nest.”