Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I want to raise the naming of the new children's hospital. I do not know if it was discussed in the Cabinet but there was media coverage of suggestions that the Cabinet had actually made, or was going to make, a decision about the name of the hospital. My colleague, Senator Sharon Keogan, and I brought forward a Private Members' motion, as did Fianna Fáil, in the names of Senators Lorraine Clifford-Lee and Mary Fitzpatrick. Both motions were welcomed with open arms across the House.That is important. The motions proposed that the hospital be called after Kathleen Lynn, a nurse who subsequently became a doctor. Kathleen Lynn was born on 28 January 1874 near Killala, County Mayo, and grew up in the aftermath of the Famine. Clearly, through her interactions with people, she dealt with disease and death. She was conscious that there was no infant hospital in Dublin. She opened a private GP practice in Rathmines where she became radicalised and mobilised through her engagement with the lived experience of her patients and children during that time. She was involved in the revolutionary movement from which the Irish Free State emerged. She established soup kitchens and hospitals and dealt with information and health issues. She later became the chief medical officer at St. James’s Hospital and served with the Irish Citizen Army. During the 1916 Rising, Dr. Lynn was the national medical officer and treated many of the wounded casualties. I could go on at great length about her. Everyone knows, or should know, about her. There is a lot of information about her in the public domain. She was elected as a TD in Dublin in 1923, although she never took her seat.

What am I saying? I am saying this is a woman of substance who was hugely committed to health, children's health in particular. Never in her time did she see her real ambition realised, which was to have a dedicated children's hospital. Of course, she crossed swords with the one and only Archbishop of Dublin at the time, Dr. John Charles McQuaid, who opposed her idea and aspiration for a hospital because he said a children's hospital should be run exclusively for Catholics. McQuaid succeeded at that time. What am I saying now? We have a new national children's hospital. What more befitting and greater way to honour the legacy of Dr. Kathleen Lynn than to name the hospital after her.

Fianna Fáil colleagues – it may have been Senator Mary Fitzpatrick - invited many people from the 1916 Relatives Association, who wholly endorsed and strongly recommended this proposal. I ask all Members of this House to use their connections in politics and with the Government to push and advocate for the naming of this wonderful new hospital, when it eventually opens, after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. I also ask for a debate on this matter some time in the near future because there are many sides to this. Many people have experiences and knowledge of her that they would like to bring to this debate. It would be a good thing to have a debate on this issue and invite the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to the House. I appeal to the Leader to facilitate an early debate on this particular issue.