Name for New Irish National Children’s Hospital

The erection of a new Irish National Children’s Hospital has been approved for St James’s Hospital in Dublin. It is estimated to cost €700 million and be completed by 2020. A branding company has been engaged to come up with an appropriate name for the new hospital. A most appropriate name would be the Dr Kathleen Lynn National Children’s Hospital.

Dr Kathleen Florence Lynn (1874-1955) was one of the first women in Ireland to qualify as a doctor, a suffragette, a socialist, a feminist, a 1916 leader and above all, in this context, the founder of a mother and children’s hospital in Dublin. She was born in Glebe House, Mullafarry, near Killala, in County Mayo, the daughter of Robert Lynn, a Church of Ireland clergyman, and Katharine, née Wynne, from Drumcliffe, County Sligo. Later, the family moved first to Shrule, County Longford, for a short time before settling in Cong, County Mayo, during the early 1880s. Kathleen was educated at Alexander School in Dublin, as well as in England and Germany, before enrolling as a medical student in the Royal University of Ireland, where she excelled. In 1899, she became one of the first women in Ireland to graduate in medicine. After work experience in the USA, she became the first woman doctor in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin in 1902. In 1904, she took up residence at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines, in Dublin, where she established her practice. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1909, then a huge achievement for a woman. A committed suffragette and labour activist, she did her upmost to help workers during the Dublin 1913/14 lockout. After joining the Irish Citizen Army of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, which was established by James Connolly to protect workers during the lockout, she took part in the 1916 Rising, first as chief medical officer with the City Hall garrison, but took up command of her unit following the death of her commanding officer. She was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol.

On her release in 1917, she was elected to the Sinn Fëin executive, which had become by then the political party for Irish nationals seeking separation from Britain. Kathleen took part in the War of Independence and was arrested, but was released to help with the outbreak of a flu epidemic. In 1919 with her friend Madelaine Ffrench-Mullen, she established Ireland’s first mother and child hospital, St Ultan’s at Charlemont Street in Dublin. It catered very much for the poor of Dublin and was run exclusively by women. In 1937, she pioneered the use of BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine, in an effort to prevent tuberculosis. Dr Lynn was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 but, as an opponent of the treaty, she did not take her seat, and was not re-elected in 1927. In following her own path in life, relationships with her family and her class became strained. After her death on September 14, 1955, she was buried in the family plot in Deansgrange cemetery in Dublin, with full military honours in recognition of her role in 1916. Dr Kathleen Lynn was responsible for providing medical services to numerous mothers and children in Dublin during her career and deserves to be remembered in a special way.

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble

It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).

An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).