Reclaiming Cork doctor James Barry as a trans icon 

We may never know the truth about the pioneering medic born as Margaret Ann Bulkley, but artist Kevin Gaffney is clear where he stands in the debate, writes Ellie O'Byrne

Dr James Barry, pioneering medic born as Margaret Ann Bulkley. 

The tale of Dr James Barry, the military surgeon from Cork who became Inspector General of Military Hospitals, the second highest medical office in colonial Britain, is extraordinary in many ways.

Certainly the most remembered and discussed of these is the fact that, after his death in 1865, and against his explicit instruction to bury him without examining the body, it was discovered he had been born female.