The Rebel Doctor

THE SIPTU trade union and other campaigners say the new National Children’s Hospital of Ireland should be named after 1916 hero Dr Kathleen Lynn, one of the most dedicated pioneers of children’s health and welfare.

The Children’s Hospital of Ireland is to be built on the site of the new Mater Campus near Dublin City Centre.

Dr Lynn has been so important in the history of the development of the Irish healthcare system that she took pride of place at an exhibition by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland at its open day as part of the Government-backed Heritage Week 2010.

The exhibition covered Dr Lynn’s involvement in the 1916 Rising, the foundation of the state and what the College of Physicians described as “her unparalleled contribution to paediatric medicine”.

Items on display included Dr Lynn’s Diary, which includes “a vivid account of her involvement in the 1916 Rising and subsequent imprisonment”, and newspaper cuttings which described her deportation from Ireland for her part in the Easter Rising. 

Artefacts relating to her close friendship with Constance Markievicz were also on display.

Kathleen Lynn, founder of St Ultan’s Hospital, was born in Killala, County Mayo, into a wealthy Protestant family.

She went on to play a major role in the Irish Citizen Army and the 1916 Easter Rising. Now Mayo Sinn Féin Councillor Thérèse Ruane is seeking the support of local authorities and individuals in supporting the call to honour this “doctor, feminist, patriot and revolutionary”.

Thérèse Ruane said:

“Kathleen died in 1955 but right to the end she dreamed of and worked for the establishment of a National Children’s Hospital. She transformed healthcare services to children and the poor in tenement Dublin in the early part of this century. It would be right and fitting that the hospital be named ‘The Kathleen Lynn National Children’s Hospital’.”

A doctor, a social activist, a suffragist and a republican, Kathleen Lynn graduated from the Royal University of Ireland in 1899, one of the first women ever to do so. 

She became active in the women’s suffrage movement and republicanism. She supported the workers during the 1913 Lock-Out and worked alongside Constance Markievicz in the soup kitchens in Liberty Hall.

As a member of the Irish Citizen Army, she organised ambulance and first aid instruction at Liberty Hall. On Easter Monday 1916, she was arrested and held in custody until her deportation to England in June 1916. James Connolly appointed her Chief Medical Officer to the Irish Citizen Army.

She was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail for her part in the 1916 Easter Rising and then deported to England.

The Irish Labour History Museum notes:

“By 1917 she had been released and was elected a member of the Standing Committee of Sinn Féin. Following the general round-up of Sinn Féin leaders in 1918 and, having been ‘on the run’ for some time, she appeared at the Sinn Féin Convention and then inserted a notice in the daily press indicating that she had retired to her residence at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines.”

She was arrested but when the Lord Mayor of Dublin made representations on her behalf so that she could help combat the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918, she was duly released.”

She founded the first paediatric hospital in Ireland, St Ultan’s, to treat children in tenement Dublin who suffered and perished in shockingly high numbers from poverty-induced illnesses and diseases.

She helped to introduce BCG vaccinations to Ireland, playing a key role in the eradication of TB.

As a member of Sinn Féin, she was elected Vice-President of the Irish Women Workers’ Union.

Kathleen was elected a Sinn Féin TD between 1921 and 1926 but, opposed to the Treaty of 1921, she did not take her seat. She later drew back from politics and concentrated on her medical work.

Sinn Féin Councillor Thérèse Ruane told An Phoblacht:

“I hope we give Kathleen Lynn the public place in Irish social and medical history she rightfully deserves.”

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Health & Children, Cavan/Monaghan Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, has tabled a Dáil motion seeking TDs’ support for this fitting honour to a hero of Ireland’s health service.