All eyes on first ‘girls in blue’

Mary Stratford’s first crime investigation was a traffic accident.

Nothing remarkable there, you might think — except she was the cause of it.

Mary, from Barefield, Ennis, was one of the first female gardaí, joining the force 50 years ago this week.

She was one of five female gardaí deployed to the old Edward St station in Limerick.

“I was only in Limerick a few days when I was sent on traffic duty for a big hurling game at the Gaelic grounds. I was on duty a few minutes when two cars crashed head on. There was a bit of damage but nobody was hurt.

“I spoke to one of the drivers and he said he was sorry, but he took his eye off the road as he was looking at me, as it was the first time he had seen a woman garda.”

She later transferred to Dublin and had a memorable introduction to her husband, Willie Stratford, who went on to join the murder squad.

“He was also a garda and we were deployed to take a very agitated woman to Grangegorman psychiatric hospital,” she said. “We met in the back of the ambulance when we were with the woman, and our romance took off from there. Our three sons went on to become gardaí and we were the first all-garda family in the country.”

Mary and her four Limerick colleagues of 50 years ago — Teresa Dundon, Kathleen O’Sullivan, Peg Browne (the first sergeant), and Dympna Canny — held a special reunion yesterday and were accorded a City Hall reception by Limerick mayor Gerry McLoughlin. Also present was local auctioneer Pat Kearney, who was the first garda to welcome the women on their first day at work.

Dympna, who lives in Ballincollig, Cork, said: “When we arrived in Limerick we were treated like celebrities everywhere we went. People were amazed to see women gardaí. And the male gardaí in the station were very good to us and were like brothers to us.”