Clodagh Finn: Lynn diaries reveal private life of a very public woman

Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen with infants at St Ultan’s Hospital in Dublin, in 1920. Picture: courtesy of Courtesy of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

On May 10, 1916, Kathleen Lynn, pioneering doctor, independent thinker and political activist, wrote in her diary: “Mtjoy [Mountjoy prison] clean & comfortable, but I’d give £10,000 for Kilmainham and Madel[e]ine”.

Her Easter Rising lasted just one day before she was arrested, with several others, and held in appalling conditions at Ship Street barracks. She complained about the cold, the lice-infested bedding and the lack of food and sanitation, but was told it was good enough for the prisoners: “Lice, fleas & typhoid should content us,” the soldiers said.