Kathleen Lynn

Kathleen Lynn

Kathleen Florence Lynn (28 January 1874 – 14 September 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, activist and medical doctor. She was born in Killala, Co Mayo, the daughter of a Church of Ireland rector. She was so greatly affected by the poverty and disease of the Great Famine that at the age of sixteen years old she decided to be a doctor. She was educated in England and Germany, before enrolling in the Royal University of Ireland, a forerunner to the UCD School of Medicine. Following her graduation in 1899, Dr Lynn went to the United States, where she worked for ten years, before returning to Ireland to become the first female doctor at the Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital (1910–1916).

Suffragette activity

An active suffragette, labour activist and nationalist, Lynn was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and chief medical officer during the 1916 Easter Rising. She described herself as “a Red Cross doctor and a belligerent” when she was arrested. ^[1] For her part in the rising, she was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, with her comrades Constance Markievicz, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen and Helena Molony. In 1923, Lynn was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County constituency at the 1923 general election.^[2] In accordance with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy of the time, she did not take her seat in Dáil Éireann. She lost her seat in the June 1927 general election.^[3] She unsuccessfully contested the August 1927 by-election for Dublin County.

Medical career

Lynn's medical career was defined by her work at Saint Ultan's Hospital for Infants, which she established in Dublin in 1919, with a group of female activists. Lynn's work with Dublin's inner-city poor had convinced her of the need for a hospital to provide medical and educational facilities for impoverished mothers and infants. Earlier in her career, Lynn had experienced discrimination in applying for hospital positions due to her gender, and Saint Ultan's was the only hospital in Ireland entirely managed by women.^[4] Saint Ultan's Hospital grew rapidly, and from 1937 became the centre for BCG vaccination in Ireland. The hospital closed in 1983.

Personal life

Lynn lived in Rathmines from 1903 to her death in 1955, sharing her home with her friend and confidante Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. Lynn died on 14 September 1955, and is buried in the family plot at Deansgrange Cemetery. In acknowledgement of the role she played in the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence, she was buried with full military honours.^[5]

Lynn's personal diaries for the period 1916–1955, and the administrative papers of Saint Ultan's Hospital are held by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland archive.

References

1. Eight Women of the Easter Rising The New York Times, March 16, 2016
2. "Kathleen Florence Lynn". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
3. "Kathleen Lynn". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
4. Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret, Kathleen Lynn. Irishwoman, Patriot, Doctor. (Irish Academic Press, 2006). pp. 68–69.
5. Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret, Kathleen Lynn. Irishwoman, Patriot, Doctor. (Irish Academic Press, 2006).

Sources

• Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret (2010). Kathleen Lynn. Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press).
• Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret (2006). Kathleen Lynn: Irishwoman, Patriot, Doctor. Irish Academic Press.