Revolutionary Irish Women Doctors 1916 to the Civil War

by anarchaeologist - PRA Tue Feb 24, 2009 14:12

Here's a shot of Kathleen Lynn (l.) with her colleague Madelaine French-Mullen.

To my shame, I don't know much about either of them, but Brigid Lyons Thornton died in April 1987 and she was buried on the 71st anniversary of the Easter Rising. Commissioned by Collins, she became the only woman officer in the new Free State Army. There's a link below to the publisher's blurb on its website...

'A valuable addition to other eyewitness accounts of the Rising.'
- The Irish Catholic

MacLellan's research on Dorothy Price will be particularly interesting.

by pat c Tue Feb 24, 2009 14:34

The Politics and Relationships of Kathleen Lynn, by Marie Mulholland is a short biography. It mainly covers the period 1900 - 1926.

The Politics and Relationships of Kathleen Lynn

"If they were men, I'd say they were mad, but they are women..." so spoke an unidentified male observer of the efforts of Dr Kathleen Lynn and the women friends who supported her in the historic undertaking to establish St Ultan's Infants Hospital in Dublin. Kathleen Lynn is best known for her pioneering medical practices and her transformation of healthcare services to children and the poor.

However, it is the woman, the social activist, the suffragist and the militant Republican who takes centre stage in this volume. She emerged from the unlikely origins of a comfortable, unionist family in Co. Mayo to storm Dublin City Hall in 1916 as a lieutenant in Connolly's Irish Citizen Army. Neither male nor mad, but something much more challenging - a woman who lived what she believed. Lynn intrigues and resonates half a century after her death supplying inspiration and frustration in equal measure to those of us in Ireland still hungry for change.
http://www.woodfield-press.com/lynn.htm

Here is an interesting article on Kathleen Lynn by the former Senator Mary Henry:

Pioneering Women
http://homepage.eircom.net/~maryhenry/articles/05-may23.htm

by éirígí Wed Mar 25, 2009 21:11

Doctor Kathleen Lynn remembered on International Women’s Day

09/03/09

Saturday (March 7) saw éirígí celebrate International Women’s Day in a ceremony held in Dublin. In marking International Women’s Day éirígí remembered Suffragette, Irish Citizen Army Volunteer, Doctor and revolutionary – Kathleen Lynn.

The event saw activists and supporters gather in Deansgrange cemetery in Dublin at the graveside of the respected feminist, socialist and republican.

Proceedings were chaired by Suzie Murray, who introduced Joanne McDonald to give an overview of the life and achievements of Dr Lynn. Joanne described the poverty, destitution and sexism which inspired Lynn to become politically active and her subsequent involvement in the Irish freedom struggle.

Born in county Mayo in 1874 she spent her adult life in struggle, dedicating herself to the cause of the suffragette movement, social justice and national liberation. She was chief medical officer in the Irish Citizen Army in the 1916 Rising, playing a prominent role in the hostilities of Easter Week.

Captured, imprisoned and eventually deported by the British occupation forces, she nevertheless continued her involvement in the struggle for Irish independence in the following years.

Joanne’s contribution was followed by a reading of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, delivered as Gaeilge by éirígí spokesperson Ursula Shannon.

A wreath was then laid at Lynn’s graveside and a moment of silence was held to remember all who had fought and died in the struggle for equality and liberty for all regardless of gender, race or creed.

Dr Kathleen Lynn – An Appreciation on International Women’s Day 2009

Kathleen Lynn, daughter of a Church of Ireland Minister, was born in Cong in Co. Mayo on the 28 of January 1874. She was an exceptionally bright child, who achieved early academic success. She spent the summer months around the village, learning “chonas chaint as Gaeilge” from the local people. She greatly appreciated the folklore of the area, particular the songs, and she herself had a real grá for singing. This stood to her when she became a student in Dublin and precipitated her joining Conradh na Gaeilge, an organisation founded by fellow protestant Douglas Hyde.

At 19 she entered Medical School, being one of the first women to be allowed into the College of Surgeons, from which she qualified as a doctor in 1899. It was at this stage in her life she fought her first battle in defence of the rights of women, winning, and going on to become the very first female surgeon in Ireland. It was seen as being bad enough that women were allowed become doctors – but to allow them have knives in their hands and operate on people was seen as a compete no-no within the male-dominated medical establishment of the day.

It was around this time that she was begun to develop her life-long commitment to revolutionary politics – throwing herself into the national movement, the Gaelic revival movement. Above all, she was very influenced by the Suffragette movement in Britain and the USA. The condition of women generally was becoming a great concern of hers. She made friends with other Irish feminists like Constance Markievicz, Maud Gone McBride, Madeline Ffrench-Mullen, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and others, all of whom would remain life-long friends.

It was the 1913 Lockout that gave Kathleen her first taste of working class struggle. Despite the background she came from, she threw herself wholeheartedly into the struggle of the Dublin workers. It was at this time that she first met and was very much influenced by James Connolly. She and Constance Markievicz set up the soup kitchen in Liberty Hall during the Lockout. She also gave freely of her time and energy to provide medical services to the sick during this struggle.

1913 was also the year that Connolly set up the Irish Citizen Army. Kathleen Lynn was appointed Captain of the Citizen Army Medical Corps. She organized the collection of medical supplies and gave lessons in first aid.

On Easter Monday 1916, Connolly assembled the Irish Citizen Army in Liberty Hall. He informed them that they would be joining other groups – The Irish Volunteers and Hibernian Rifles in a strike for Ireland’s freedom. The Irish Citizen Army would now become a part of the Army of the Irish Republic, the Irish Republican Army. Connolly chose Kathleen Lynn to carry the Starry Plough from Liberty Hall to the GPO as the combined forces marched into battle. Kathleen Lynn was chosen because she was a woman, a doctor, a protestant and a suffragette, thus expressing the type of Worker’s Republic Connolly had envisaged – that is, a Republic that was egalitarian, non-sectarian, and based upon gender-equality. If Connolly had achieved this Workers’ Republic there would be a Statue of Kathleen carrying that Starry Plough in every National School in Ireland. Lenin, the Russian Revolutionary was to write later that the Irish Citizen Army was the first Red Army (Workers’ Army) to go into battle anywhere in the World.

Having carried the Starry Plough, Kathleen Lynn then resumed her role on the front-line as Captain of the Medical Corps of the new Army. She was sent to Dublin City Hall to attend to the wounded. It was there that she pronounced Seán Connolly dead, dying as he did in an attempt to seize Dublin Castle, the British administrative centre in the capital. He was the first member of the Irish Republican Army ever to die. He also had been a member of the Irish Citizen Army. Soon after talking part in the assault on Dublin Castle she was captured by the British and spent the rest of the week in Ship Street Barracks, later being moved to Kilmainham Gaol. On the 10th of May she was moved to Mountjoy Gaol for a week before being transported to England on May 17th.

Kathleen’s family made representations for Kathleen not to be incarcerated – she was allowed take up medical duties in Bath in the south of England as there was a scarcity of doctors because of the Great War. She later found out that her family had declared her a lunatic for taking part in the Rising. This hurt her very much. She moved back to Dublin in early 1917 and took up residence in Grosvenor Road, Rathmines, in a house owned by Joseph Plunkett’s family. She was to share this house with Constance Markievicz. She continued as an activist in the republican struggle – both as a member of the IRA and of the newly formed Sinn Féin party.

By the time of the 1918 election her friend Constance Markievicz was back in Gaol. It was decided that Markievicz would stand in the Liberties area of Dublin where there was a large concentration of women, 2500 alone working in the Jacobs’ biscuit factory. The Jacobs’ Women were staunchly Trade Unionist, being members of the Irish Women Workers’ Union, a branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. It was left to Kathleen Lynn and others to organize the election campaign that led to Markievicz becoming the first women elected to the British House of Commons, and, when the republican deputies later withdrew and set-up the independent First Dáil, to her being appointed Minster for Labour in the revolutionary separatist administration based in the Mansion House.

At the time of the truce Kathleen vehemently opposed the Treaty, knowing as she did from her own social background and from the teachings of Connolly that it would divide the working class of Ireland along religious lines and create two sectarian states. She assisted the anti-Treaty forces in every way possible and was bitterly disappointed at the defeat of the republican forces in the Civil War.

Kathleen, Constance Markievicz and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington subsequently committed themselves to pushing women’s and labour issues within Sinn Féin. Then, in 1926 when de Valera split from Sinn Féin over abstentionism and founded a new party called Fianna Fáil, all three joined. At this stage Kathleen Lynn was still a Sinn Féin TD for Rathmines. Constance Markievicz died in early 1927 at the age of 59. She died from cancer brought on by her habit of smoking 60 cigarettes a day. This badly affected Kathleen who was left to organize the funeral.

Her initial enthusiasm for Fianna Fáil was soon to die, as de Valera made his peace with the Catholic Church; women were to be relegated to the home for the purpose of having children and being servants to their husbands. Both Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Kathleen Lynn fought a hard battle to get amendments to the constitution to include express acknowledgement of the rights of women. Hanna was to join the Republican Congress and later the Communist Party of Ireland. When she died in the 1940s she caused public outrage by banning all priests or dog collars of any kind from appearing at her funeral.

After leaving Fianna Fáil, Kathleen concentrated mainly on her contribution to medicine. She had set up a hospital in 1919 with her friend Madeline Ffrench-Mullen. St. Ultan’s of 37 Charlemont Street was initially set up for the treatment of babies under one year of age. The infant mortality rate in Dublin at the time was 164 per thousand births - one of the highest rates in the world. She later allowed the hospital to cater for older children and it was one of the first Children’s Hospitals in the State. She increasingly became embroiled in battles with the Catholic Church and in particular Bishop John Charles McQuaid.

He had no control over St. Ultan’s. He tried but could not dictate their ethics. He forbid catholic nurses from working with protestant nurses, and also objected to the all-female staff in the Hospital. He also accused Kathleen of explaining the fertility cycle of women to the uneducated, which, as McQuaid saw it, was interfering with God’s will. St Ultan’s gave out free BCG vaccines at the time when TB was rampant in Dublin. McQuaid also found a way to object to that. Kathleen became an adviser to Dr Noel Browne when he was Minster for Health. He also was to fall foul of the arch-conservative McQuaid. In recognition of her lifelong commitment to the health of the people of Ireland, the Irish Medical Council named its “Lynn House” Head Quarters on the Rathmines Road after her.

Kathleen Lynn’s legacy has for the most part been written out of Irish history. It is up to the young women of Ireland today to resurrect her memory. Kathleen Lynn – Medical Doctor, Marxist, Feminist, Nationalist and Internationalist died on the 14th of September in 1955 at the age of 8