Kathleen Florence Lynn was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 politician, activist and medical doctor. She was born to a Dublin Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

 family and educated in England and Germany before graduating as a doctor in 1899 from the Royal University of Ireland

Royal University of Ireland

The Royal University of Ireland was founded in accordance with the University Education Act 1879 as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of the University of London. A Royal Charter was issued on April 27, 1880 and examinations were opened to candidates irrespective of...

.

An active suffragette

Suffragette

"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...

, labour activist and nationalist, Lynn was a member of the Irish Citizen Army

Irish Citizen Army

The Irish Citizen Army , or ICA, was a small group of trained trade union volunteers established in Dublin for the defence of worker’s demonstrations from the police. It was formed by James Larkin and Jack White. Other prominent members included James Connolly, Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz,...

 and chief medical officer during the 1916 Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

. For her part in the rising she was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency...

, with her friends Constance Markievicz, Madeline ffrench-Mullen and Helena Moloney

Helena Moloney

Helena Moloney was a prominent Irish republican, feminist and labor activist. She fought in the 1916 Easter Rising and later became the second woman president of the Irish Trade Union Congress....

. In 1923 Lynn was elected to Dáil Éireann

Dáil Éireann

Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...

 as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála

Teachta Dála

A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...

 (TD) for the Dublin County constituency

Dublin County (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Dublin County was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1921 to 1969...

 at the 1923 general election

Irish general election, 1923

The Irish general election of 1923 was held on 27 August 1923. The newly elected members of the 4th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 19 September when the new President of the Executive Council and Executive Council of the Irish Free State were appointed. The election was held just after the end...

. In accordance with Sinn Féin abstentionist

Abstentionism

Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself...

 policy of the time, she did not take her seat in Dáil Éireann. She lost her seat at the June 1927 general election. She unsuccessfully contested the August 1927 by-election for Dublin County.

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 has experienced discrimination in applying for hospital position due to her gender, and Saint Ultan's was the only hospital in Ireland entirely managed by women. Saint Ultan's Hospital grew rapidly, and from 1937 became the centre for BCG

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin is a vaccine against tuberculosis that is prepared from a strain of the attenuated live bovine tuberculosis bacillus, Mycobacterium bovis, that has lost its virulence in humans by being specially subcultured in an artificial medium for 13 years, and also prepared from...

 vaccination in Ireland. The hospital closed in 1984.

Lynn lived in Rathmines

Rathmines

Rathmines is a suburb on the southside of Dublin, about 3 kilometres south of the city centre. It effectively begins at the south side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to the south, Ranelagh to the east and Harold's Cross to the west.Rathmines has...

 from 1903 to her death in 1955, sharing her home with her friend and confidante Madeline ffrench-Mullen. Lynn died on 14 September 1955, and is buried in the family plot at Deansgrange

Deansgrange

Deansgrange in is a suburban area of South Dublin, centered around a crossroads. The area shares the name Clonkeen . The area further east of Deansgrange is known as "Kill of the Grange" Deansgrange in is a suburban area of South Dublin, centered around a crossroads. The area shares the name...

 Cemetery. In acknowledgement of the role she played in the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence

Irish War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...

, she was buried with full military honours.

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

Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland , was founded in 1654 and is a postgraduate medical organisation comprising Members and Fellows...

archive.

Sources

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