Kathleen Florence Lynn 1874-1955

Doctor & Political Activist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Lynn
Findagrave Memorial for Kathleen Lynn
https://bit.ly/1qqBubL

Kathleen Florence Lynn 1874-1955

Kathleen Lynn was a well known political activist, patriot and philanthropist in Ireland. She fought for feminism, was involved in the 1916 rising and the 4th Dail. She also had a prominent role in the Irish Citizen Army. Kathleen was unique in her time as she graduated as a Doctor in Belfast in 1899 in the Royal University in Belfast,  some of her male colleagues refused to work with her.

Killala, Co Mayo

Kathleen was born in Mullaghfarry, Killala in 1874, the daughter of Catherine and Rev. Robert Lynn, a Church of Ireland Rector.[i] Kathleen grew up in post-famine Ireland, where the West was still suffering poverty and injustice. Although she herself came from a wealthy family she became aware of the trials of disadvantaged and the struggle of the tenant farmers in her area.

She attended Alexandra College (Secondary School) in Dublin as a boarder and went on from here to study Medicine. After that she attended the Catholic University Medical School and on graduation studied for some time in the US. [ii]

Activist

Kathleen was a member of the Irish women’s suffrage movement and was a campaigner against injustice to the employees during the 1913 Lock-out in Dublin. She was involved in running a soup kitchen in Dublin with other volunteers, one colleague being Countess Markievicz who shared her experience of being born into a wealthy protestant background.[iii]

James Connolly was the founder of the Irish Citizen Army of which Kathleen was a member, she was rewarded for her work for the organisation when he appointed her its Chief Medical Officer.[iv]

1916 Rising

Kathleen was stationed in City Hall during the 1916 Rising. The commander Sean Connolly was shot fatally, leaving her with the responsibility of command over the other rebels alongside her. They eventually surrendered and Kathleen and her garrison were arrested by the British Army. She served time with Countess Markieviz in Kilmainham Gaol, they were in prison when the 1916 leaders were executed.[v] She was also imprisoned in Mountjoy and in the UK.

Following a plea from her parents for her release, Kathleen became a member of the Sinn Fein excecutive and was later imprisoned for some time for this reason. She was released as they required her medical assistance when there was an outbreak of TB in Dublin city. She was elected to the Dail as a TD (republican) in her Dublin constituency in 1923 but did not attend the sessions as she was an anti-treaty supporter; Kathleen was not in favour of signing an oath of allegience to the British Crown. In her diary she noted “Peace terms, but such a Peace!, not what Connolly and Mullin and countless others died for!”[vi]

St. Ultan’s Hospital

Kathleen had a doctors practice in Rathmines and she founded the first paediatric Hospital St. Ultan’s in Charlemount Street in 1919, where she took care of the babies of the lower classes of Dublin. She employed all women in the hospital. She introduced the BCG vaccination to help eradicate the spread of TB among the tenement dwellers in Dublin, as she had become aware of the fatal consequences of this disease. [vii]

Death

Kathleen died in 1955, she is interred in the family plot in Deansgrange Cemetery near Blackrock in Dublin. She had a military funeral and the guard of honour were members of the Irish Citizen Army. Nurses lined the route as her cortege passed to the Cemetery.[i]

Footnotes

Kathleen Lynn is mentioned with Photograph in ‘Western Star‘ December 2021 edition on page 88.

Dr. Kathleen Lynn’s achievements are recounted (with images on pages 11 & 22) in the Dublin City Council’s ‘History on your Doorstep’. Vol. 2: https://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/2021-06/history-on-your-doorstep-volume-2.pdf


[i] www.irishtimes.com

[ii] www.kathleenlynn.net 

[iii] www.wikipedia.org

[iv] www.kathleenlynn.net

[v] www.irishtimes.com

[vi] Price, Dominic, (2012)  The Flame and the Candle, War in Mayo 1919-1924, Collins Press. Cork.

[vii] www.historyireland.com

[viii]Memorial / Headstone

 

Comments about this page

  • A video on Madeline Ffrench Mullen by Dr. Sylie Kleinman of Trinity College details her connection with Dr. Kathleen Lynn at this link:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6yCKGeI4L0

    By Noelene Beckett Crowe. (01/06/2021)
  • Westport Toastmasters discussed Dr. Kathleen Lynn at their March 2021 meeting as reported in The Connaught Telegraph of 13th April 2021 on page 61.

    By Noelene Beckett Crowe. (13/04/2021)
  • At the Rev. Professor R. M. Gwynn (1877 – 1962) Commemoration & Seminar on 19th September 2013; Patrick Comerford in his address stated (part of) ‘But there were other members of the Church of Ireland who would take more prominent roles in the Irish Citizen Army. Less well – remembered these days, perhaps is Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Chief Medical Officer of the I C A, who took command of the rebel unit in Dublin City Hll in 1916, & who continued to be involved in Radical Politics all her life. Her father was Rector of Cong, Co. Mayo, in the Diocese of Tuam, & all her life she was a faithful parishioner of Holy Trinity, Rathmines.

    By Noelene Beckett Crowe (05/11/2018)

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