Dr. Kathleen Lynn

    As I was researching Dr. Kathleen Lynch I came to realize that her name was actually Dr. Kathleen Lynn and that she also had a relation to Countess Markievicz. Lynn was born Killala to a Church of Ireland clergyman and attended a girl’s school in Dublin that encouraged women to fight for equal rights. This is where the ideas of women’s suffrage and the idea to be a doctor, as it was a male dominated profession, were seeded. She would attend the Catholic University Medical School, now known as UCD and graduated in 1899. She began her career as a doctor owning her own home practice and working in hospitals that were able to hire women. At this time, she was an activist for children’s health and welfare and was one of the leading pioneers to the cause. Lynn was fairly uninvolved with the women’s movements until 1913 when Markievicz recruited her to care for Helena Molony, who was recovering from an illness. After having many late night chats with Molony and Markievicz, Lynn decided that she would join their Nationalist Movement. Her first act of rebellion would be the Dublin Lockout, in which she supported the workers and became a friend to James Connolly. She joined the Irish Citizen Army soon after and became Chief Medical Officer, which most would say was very uncharacteristic of her. Lynn had always been someone to stay on the sidelines and support a cause in quieter ways, but in the Rising she felt that she had a purpose and could really help women to gain their independence. This is where I strongly identify with Lynn on a more personal level. Even now, it is more difficult for women to get higher paying jobs than men and, being on the path of being a doctor myself, I can really relate to the struggles that she went through just to run her own practice and show people that her work was just as good, if not better, than that of a male.

    On Easter Monday of 1916, Lynn went to City Hall to stand with the army there. She was the one to see the first casualties of The Rising and would witness Sean Connolly’s death by sniper. She stated that first aid was useless and would go on to treat those who could be saved. The evening City Hall was overrun and she was arrested. Until early June she was imprisoned in Dublin and, in her diary that she kept during this time, she expressed her concern for the welfare of the other prisoners: outlining the living conditions and the mental illness that was appearing. She thought of these prisoners as her patients and did her best to treat them with her situation. Another area where I identified with Lynn was through her need to care for others even in her situation of imprisonment; I have that same mentality, others before myself, and think that she and I would have gotten along rather well in this time period. After The Rising, Lynn was transferred to London, with most of the other prisoners; but, unlike the other prisoners, Lynn was sent to work with a doctor. She would return to Dublin in the summer unharmed and spent the rest of her life participating in the Nationalist Movement. She would go on to co-found Saint Ultan’s Hospital for Infants, which provided medical care for impoverished mothers and infants, in 1919. She died in 1955 and was buried with full military honors. Dr. Kathleen Lynn was one of the first to open a hospital of the standard that St. Ultan’s would become and it would pave the way for other women to step forward in taking on bigger roles in the medical field. I think that Lynn would be proud of how far women have come, the medical profession is quickly becoming a female dominated field. I also believe that Lynn would have been very supportive of the way that gay citizens have started fighting for their rights and would encourage them to keep fighting because women now are an example of just how far a particular group can come.