Blinne will have the honour this year to carry the ‘Lethbridge Gloves’ during the Silks Day ceremony at Westminster Hall on Monday 27th March 2023, when she will be sworn in as King’s Counsel.
The Lethbridge Gloves are a small pair of white gloves paying tribute to Nemone Lethbridge, a criminal barrister who was not able to become a silk herself. Nemone (now 91) was forced to leave the Bar for almost 20 years on account of her marriage to Jimmy ‘Ginger’ O’Connor from Co Cork, Ireland, who was convicted of murder, and whose name she and her family are still fighting to clear.
At an event held each year the name of a new female criminal silk-to-be is picked from a barrister’s wig by Nemone Lethbridge herself.
The tradition was initiated by Katie Gollop KC who rediscovered Lethbridge’s story following the chance discovery of a scrapbook at auction.
Blinne’s name was picked this year to be the bearer of the gloves on Silks’ Day on 27 March 2023.