Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, I speak on this old chestnut at this stage. An rud atá á lorg agamsa inniu ná cinneadh ón Rialtas go mbeadh ainm an réabhlóidí, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, ar ospidéal na leanaí nua atá le hoscailt an bhliain seo chugainn. Dhéanfadh sé sin aitheantas dá obair mar dhochtúir agus mar cheannródaí mná, leanaí agus cearta. Bean chróga ab ea í ó Chontae Mhaigh Eo.

My proposal, since I first wrote to the then Minister for Health, former Deputy James Reilly in 2013, and the three Ministers for Health since then, is that the State would give due recognition to this daughter of Mullafarry, near Killala in County Mayo, given her contribution to Ireland in many fields, including pioneering in the male-dominated medical field in the late 1890s up to her death in 1955. Dr. Lynn had received her medical degree at the age of 25 and she continued caring for patients until she was in her 80s. Dr. Lynn died at the age of 81 and was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery in 1955. Dr. Lynn worked in Dublin's Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and was a GP in Rathmines before she and a number of other female medics set up Teach Naomh Ultáin, St. Ultan's Hospital, which was a paediatric hospital that cared for those in crying need in this city at the time, and throughout the country. That was in 1919.

Given that we are coming to the end of the decade of centenaries, and given the site of the new children's hospital being built at the South Dublin Union at St. James' Hospital, it is appropriate to name the hospital after the only female commandant in charge of a republican garrison during the Rising. Dr. Kathleen Lynn had joined the Irish Citizens' Army on its founding in 1913, along with many other women. They helped out also during the Lock-out. Dr. Lynn was the Irish Citizens' Army's surgeon general and she took over the role of commandant in the City Hall outpost when Sean Connolly was shot dead on that roof very early in the republicans' occupation of City Hall. Dr. Lynn was arrested, held in Richmond Barracks and then sent to England. Dr. Lynn held firm and, in 1917, was on the reorganised Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle and was active during the War of Independence and the Civil War. Dr. Lynn was elected a Teachta Dála in 1923 for Dublin County and was a councillor for ten years, being one of the very early female Deputies. In recent weeks Dr. Lynn has been acknowledged at the bottom of the main staircase in Leinster House in a fabulous portrait, among many other views of women. I encourage people to look at that.

Dr. Lynn's hospital became famous for pioneering the care of children, especially towards the end of the Spanish flu epidemic and the roll-out of the BCG vaccine that helped to eradicate TB in Ireland. Given the past few years, naming the hospital after a female medic would also honour female medics of today and their role, along with the rest of the medical staff and teams in our hospitals today, in tackling the Covid pandemic. A Church of Ireland woman, Dr. Lynn's hospital was never allowed to prosper in the State and was sidelined until its closure in the 1980s. There was a proposal in 1935 that the hospital would be amalgamated with the State's national children's hospital, but this was opposed by the then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Edward Byrne, who said that an amalgamation would undermine the faith of Catholic children and that it would not be safe. He said there would be a widespread attack on children's morals through the medium of medicine. Given the ongoing debate on the role of the Catholic church in institutional sex abuse then and after, this charge rings very hollow.

This would perhaps be another appropriate reason to name the hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.

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