Mayo doctor honoured on 1916 centenary stamp

A SET of 16 stamps marking the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising has been issued by An Post.

Huge national and international demand is expected for the 1916-2016 Eighth Definitive Stamp Series commemorating the key founding event of the modern Irish state. The stamps are grouped into four categories: Leaders and Icons, Participants, Easter Week, and The Aftermath. Although each image represents an individual subject, the themes also reflect a chronological progression from the lead-up to the Rising through to its aftermath. The stamps have been designed as a narrative rather than as 16 individual images.

The Participants' category highlights the breadth of forces involved in the fighting with Mayo's Dr. Kathleen Lynn featuring on a stamp alongside Elizabeth O’Farrell, representing the role played by female combatants.

Dr. Lynn (1874-1955) was a medical campaigner and suffragist, and an officer with the Irish Citizen Army.

Born in Mayo, she was the daughter of a Church of Ireland rector and related to Countess Markievicz. After qualifying as a doctor, she set up a practice in Dublin and was a feminist, socialist and nationalist who assisted hunger-striking suffragists.

She was stationed at City Hall during the Rising and was chief medical officer. Lynn later practiced as a doctor during the War of Independence and in 1919 established the first infant hospital in Ireland, St. Ultan’s, with her friend Madelaine french-Mullen.

Following her death in 1955, she was buried with full military honours for the role she played in the Rising at Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin.