Dr Kathleen Lynn: a public and private radical

Using her diaries, Dr Mary McAuliffe will discuss the life, public and private, of the feminist, socialist and revolutionary, Dr Kathleen Lynn. The women of Lynn’s generation, many of whom came to feminism, socialism, and militant nationalism in the first decade of the 1900s, not only chose radical politics, but they also chose radical lives. She began her public life among the generation of radicals who committed their lives to three great ideologies – freedom for workers, women and Ireland – and her professional life in her other great venture, St Ultan’s Hospital for Sick Infants, which she co-founded. She was also among a cohort who chose not just radical politics, but radical love; Lynn and her partner Madeleine ffrench-Mullen are among a cohort of revolutionaries who chose to make their lives with each other.

This talk forms part of the Oak Room Heritage Talk Series, created by Dublin City Council’s Heritage Office as an action of the Dublin City Strategic Heritage Plan 2024-2029. It is part-funded by the Heritage Council.