36 Facts About Kathleen Lynn

Kathleen Florence Lynn was an Irish Sinn Fein politician, political activist and doctor.

Kathleen Lynn was educated in England and Germany, before enrolling in the Royal University of Ireland, a forerunner to the UCD School of Medicine.

Kathleen Lynn was born on 28 January 1874 in the townland of Mullafarry, near Killala in County Mayo, to a Church of Ireland clergyman, Robert Young Lynn, and his wife, Catherine Wynne, and was their second of four children.

Kathleen Lynn's mother, Catherine, was a great granddaughter of Owen Wynne of Hazelwood House, County Sligo.

Kathleen Lynn was sent to the Alexandra College, of which Lady Ardilaun was the patron, in Dublin, which she attended till she was sixteen years old.

Kathleen Lynn was distantly related to Countess Markievicz through her aunt's marriage.

Kathleen Lynn instead had to spend Christmas 1917 with her aunt Florence in Dublin.

Kathleen Lynn lived in Rathmines from 1903 to her death in 1955, sharing her home with her life partner Madeleine ffrench-Mullen.

Kathleen Lynn had a holiday cottage in Glenmalure, County Wicklow - not far from Glendalough where a number of her Wynne cousins lived.

Kathleen Lynn left the cottage to An Oige, the Irish youth hostel association, on her death.

Kathleen Lynn wrote a diary from Easter 1916 until 1955, beginning with her involvement in the 1916 Rising until two months before her death.

In 1891 Kathleen Lynn went as a boarder to Alexandra College, Dublin, from where she matriculated in 1893 from the Royal University of Ireland.

From October 1897 Kathleen Lynn took classes at the Catholic University of Ireland's school of medicine in Cecilia Street, Dublin, and in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.

Kathleen Lynn graduated MB BCh BAO from the Royal University of Ireland in 1899.

Kathleen Lynn conducted her internships at Holles Street Hospital, the Rotunda Hospital, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, and at the Richmond Lunatic Asylum.

In 1898 Kathleen Lynn was appointed the first woman resident doctor at Dublin's Adelaide Hospital, but staff opposition to her appointment meant she did not take up the post.

Kathleen Lynn completed postgraduate work in the United States in the early 1900s before working as a duty doctor at hospitals in the city of Dublin as part of her wider general practice based at her home at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines, Dublin.

Kathleen Lynn became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1909, and was promoted to clinical assistant in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in the same year.

Kathleen Lynn was a member of the executive committee of the Irish Women's Suffragette and Local Government Association from 1903, and remained on the executive until 1916.

Kathleen Lynn was a member of the radical British Women's Social and Political Union from 1908 and she was said to be on friendly terms with the suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst.

Kathleen Lynn was part of a mass meeting in 1912, demanding that women's suffrage be included in the Third Home Rule Bill of that year.

Kathleen Lynn supported the workers during the 1913 lock-out and worked with Constance Markievicz and others in the soup kitchens in Liberty Hall, becoming close to Markievicz and James Connolly.

Kathleen Lynn joined the Irish Citizen Army and was chief medical officer during the 1916 Easter Rising.

Kathleen Lynn described herself as "a Red Cross doctor and a belligerent" when she was arrested.

Kathleen Lynn remained active in the Nationalist movement; she was elected vice-president of the Sinn Fein executive in 1917 and in 1923, Kathleen Lynn was elected to Dail Eireann as an anti-Treaty Sinn Fein Teachta Dala for the Dublin County constituency at the 1923 general election.

Kathleen Lynn lost her seat in the June 1927 general election.

Kathleen Lynn unsuccessfully contested the August 1927 by-election for Dublin County.

Kathleen Lynn eventually left politics in 1927, increasingly frustrated by Sinn Fein's refusal to embrace social reform and health care.

Kathleen Lynn was one of the first female medical graduates from University College Dublin.

Kathleen Lynn became politically active and worked in Liberty Hall providing food and care for the poor and destitute families during the turbulent time of the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out.

Kathleen Lynn was the chief medical officer for the Irish Citizen Army.

Kathleen Lynn provided medical training to members of the ICA and taught the Cumann na mBan.

Kathleen Lynn advocated the use of the Irish language in Church of Ireland liturgy and many events for Saint Ultan's Hospital were advertised in the Irish language.

Kathleen Lynn died on 14 September 1955, and was buried in the family plot at Deansgrange Cemetery with full military honours in recognition of her role in the Rising and the War of Independence.

Kathleen Lynn was so well known that crowds in Dublin lined the streets to show their respects.

Kathleen Lynn is used as a character in the novel The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, set in a Dublin hospital in 1918.