The Minister for Health has been asked to accept Sinn Féin’s amendment to the Children’s Health Bill and name the new Children’s Hospital the ‘Kathleen Lynn Children’s Hospital’.
I firmly believe that there is no better way to honour the memory of Kathleen Lynn than naming the hospital, which will be the primary children’s hospital on this island, in her memory. I want to thank my colleagues, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD and Louise O’Reilly, for their continuous efforts over many years to ensure that there is a fitting tribute to her life and her life’s work. I am calling on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael senators to support the Sinn Féin motion in any vote in the Seanad.
She was a revolutionary patriot, and a proud Mayo woman. She challenged many of the societal norms for women at that time. She was a suffragette, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, the first resident doctor in the Eye and Ear Hospital, instrumental in the roll-out of the BCG vaccine, a soup kitchen worker during the 1913 Lock-out, a volunteer with the Irish Citizen Army, the commanding officer of the City Hall garrison at the end of Easter week 1916, and a prisoner of war.
She later became a Deputy, a councillor and a founder of St. Ultan’s Hospital, where she worked until she was over 80 years of age. She gave her entire life to healthcare and never ceased campaigning to ensure that the highest standard of healthcare was available to all. In her time it was mainly the poor and destitute who did not receive adequate healthcare. Today there are still people from all sections of society that are not receiving the healthcare they need. We need do no more than look to and learn from Kathleen’s vision of healthcare. She challenged established norms, took bold initiative and ensured all were treated with dignity.
At a time when the numbers of those waiting on trolleys nears 1000, when 714,000 people are waiting on procedures and thousands are denied homecare, the vision and determination of Kathleen Lynn needs to be at the forefront of our minds in challenging the political system that has let down the most vulnerable in our society. Over 100 years ago, Kathleen Lynn decided things didn’t have to be as the way they are. We must act likewise.
