How could Ireland not name the new National Hospital after this woman?
Doctor Kathleen Lynn. Illustration by David Rooney from '1916 portraits and lives', Royal Irish Academy, 2015.
Rebel With A Cause
Doctor Kathleen Lynn believed in treating the whole child. She believed that holding, cuddling, and hugging the child was as important as the medical approach, and she was rarely seen in the hospital without a child in her arms. She knew all her infant patients by name or nickname and mentions them often in her diaries. When children failed to thrive or died, she mourned them as one of her own. Prof. Mary McAuliffe UCD
Doctor, feminist, suffragist, devout Anglican, socialist, trade unionist, 1916 gun runner, prisoner, fugitive from the Brits, Sinn Fein vice president, member of the Dail and children's hospital founder.
Doctor Kathleen Lynn was all these things in Ireland during a life that began in Killala, Co. Mayo in 1874 and ended on September 14, 1955, in her Dublin home since 1915. She lived through Co. Mayo’s “mini famines,” faced rejection by the medical establishment for being a woman, fed and cared for strikers in 1913, cared for the wounded in April 1916, was arrested and imprisoned by the British, then released to treat victims of the 1918 flu epidemic and established Ireland’s first hospital dedicated to the care of poor women and children.
Despite that resume, Ireland’s new $2.8 billion (2.4 billion euros) children’s hospital will not bear her name, even though there seemed to be a political consensus that it should.
The 70th anniversary of Dr. Linn’s death was noted over the weekend in Ireland where many are still wondering why the hospital will formally be named the National Children's Hospital Ireland (NCHI) rather than being named after Dr. Lynn.
“Outrageous and disappointing,” said one Sinn Fein supporter of Dr. Lynn. “Unimaginative” said another.
Gerry Adams earler weighed in on the side of naming the new national hospital for Dr. Lynn. “This year will mark 70 years since Kathleen Lynn’s death. Naming the new hospital after her would be a fitting tribute to Kathleen and to all of the women who fought for Irish freedom and who today continue to be the backbone of our medical and healthcare professions.”
Then, in late June word came down. National Children’s Hospital Ireland would be the name. Here's why. “"When a parent or guardian is getting off a train at Heuston or Connolly and getting a taxi for their child's appointment, they'll be able to say: 'take me to the National Children's Hospital Ireland',” announced Health, Minister Carroll MacNeil who said the reason the name was picked is it “was very simple”. (In Irish the name is Ospidéal Náisiúnta Leanaí Éireann)
NCHI is scheduled to open sometime next year. No one is holding their breath. The opening date had been pushed back 15 times in the last four years.
Who was this woman they didn’t name the hospital after?
They say Dr. Lynn was “radicalized” by her work with injured strikers during what was called the 1913 Lockout. Twenty thousand workers went on strike against 300 firms. Hundreds of the strikers were injured in clashes with police. James Connolly and Jim Larkin founded the Irish Citizens Army to defend the workers. Dr. Lynn was named the Chief Medical officer of the ICA.
The truth is that she was “radicalized” long before 1913. She grew up during a series of “mini famines” that hit County Mayo extremely hard in the 1870s and 1880s. Her dad was an Anglican clergyman, and she decided to become a doctor when she was 16 so she could help the famine victims. Especially the children. Call it radical empathy.
During the Easter Rising in 1916 she managed medical care for wounded rebels at Dublin City Hall until she was arrested by the British, ending up in Kilmainham Gaol. During the War of Independence in the summer of 1918 she was a wanted fugitive when captured and sent to Arbour Hill prison. But her medical expertise was so much in need during the Flu Epidemic of 1918 that the Lord Mayor of Dublin ordered her released to treat the sick and dying. Especially the children.
By 1919 she had seen enough suffering. Answering the proverbial query “What are you going to do about it?” she and her lifelong partner/confidante/companion Madeiline ffrench-Mullen founded St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital. (No name debate in this case.) Ireland had never had a hospital devoted to the care of women and children, despite horrible conditions in the slums of Dublin and Belfast. St. Ultan’s was run by women, many from Dr. Lynn’s days as a suffragist and soldier in Cumann na mBan.There were no male doctors on staff. She was a big believer in the efficacy of vaccines. In 1937 St. Ultan’s became the centre for providing the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine, used to fight tuberculosis.
Though she also had a distinguished career in politics after Ireland’s decade of conflict (1913-1923), it was her creation and management of St. Ultan’s that’s considered her greatest accomplishment. And why so many thought the new hospital should bear her name over the front door.
She wouldn’t have been surprised by the naming rights row. In the 1930s, based on the medical success St. Ultan’s had helping Irish women and children survive, Dr. Lynn drew up plans for a NATIONAL children's hospital. Plans that were never followed, as her biographer Professor Mary McAuliffe explained, “opposition from the Catholic Church, who did not want a secular hospital in which it would have little or no say, proved too big an obstacle to someone even as determined as Lynn. Her plan for a National Children’s Hospital never came to fruition.”
Until 2026. There is not currently a firm date for the opening of (what might have been) Kathleen Lynn National Children's Hospital aka Ospidéal Náisiúnta Kathleen Lynn do Leanaí.
Want to read more about Dr. Lynn?
Here’s a good place to start. The Dictionary of Irish Biography.
Dr. Lynn wrote in journals every day of her life. According to Professor Mary McAuliffe, "Lynn’s diaries are among the few eyewitness sources we have for a radical, revolutionary, socialist, and republican woman. She began her diary aged 42, when she had been practicing as a doctor for over 15 years and was already a dedicated suffrage and socialist activist, who was also committed to the fight for Irish freedom."
Once her diaries were published historians could no longer ignore the significance of her lifelong relationship with Madeiline ffrench-Mullen
The Irish Times has this story on the new hospital not being named for Dr. Lynn. Interesting fact. Four years ago, then Health Minister Simon Harris chose the name Phoenix Children’s Hospital Ireland for the new hospital. A certain city in Arizona pointed out that name was taken and Harris dropped it, opening the door for the debate about naming it after Dr. Lynn.