Reverend Canon Barbara Fryday is to retire from the Church of Ireland’s Clonmel Union of Parishes.
She was ordained in 1992 and has been a stalwart member of the community in Clonmel for many years.
She made history as the first female rector to be appointed in Clonmel, when she succeeded Reverend George Knowd in 2006.
Reverend Fryday told Tipp Today earlier that her appointment at the time, because she is a woman, did face some opposition.
“There were those within the clergy and the laity in particular places, who just didn’t want it to happen.
“They didn’t think it was right or proper, and I don’t think the word discrimination was ever mentioned in any conversations I had with anybody.
“It was just, it was something that was there from Our Lord’s time, in their view, and couldn’t be changed.”
