Mayo TD slams Government over Kathleen Lynn hospital naming decision
In a statement, the Mayo TD said it was deeply disappointing that the Government has rejected the proposal, despite Sinn Féin’s appeal to TDs across all parties to support it.
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh has expressed her disappointment at the Government’s refusal to support Sinn Féin’s Bill to name the new National Children’s Hospital after Mayo woman, republican and pioneering doctor, Dr Kathleen Lynn.
In a statement, the Mayo TD said it was deeply disappointing that the Government has rejected the proposal, despite Sinn Féin’s appeal to TDs across all parties to support it.
“What is even more disappointing is that Mayo’s Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs voted against honouring one of our county’s most remarkable women.
“Dr Kathleen Lynn was a revolutionary and a republican. As Chief Medical Officer of the Irish Citizen Army, she was the most senior-ranking woman in the 1916 Rising. She was a pioneering doctor who devoted her life to caring for children and those most in need. What a legacy it would have been to see her name proudly displayed on our new National Children’s Hospital,” she stated.
She further stated that it is rare that women are recognised in such a significant and lasting way, and this was an opportunity to honour not Dr Lynn but the enormous and ‘too often overlooked’ contribution of Irish women to the history and development of this country.
“It would also have offered a fresh start and a new identity for a hospital whose reputation has been so badly tainted by scandal, delays and billions in cost overruns.
“Instead, the Government chose to vote down Sinn Féin’s positive proposal, despite numerous Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs backing the proposal on previous occasions. Dr Kathleen Lynn’s extraordinary contribution to Ireland, to medicine and to children’s healthcare deserves far better,” she concluded.