Special garden honours Mayo suffragette Dr. Kathleen Lynn

WORK on a garden commemorating Dr. Kathleen Lynn has been completed in Cong.

The Mayo-born suffragette was Chief Medical Officer in the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Rising, after which she was imprisoned.

Later, Kathleen Lynn was instrumental in opening St. Ultan’s Hospital in Dublin, which played a huge part in tackling the ravages of TB, which was rampant at the time.

At a municipal district meeting, Councillor Michael Burke congratulated the local community on delivering a wonderful project.

He noted how the garden features 150 plants from the Botanical Gardens which are not grown anywhere else in Ireland.

Cong Tidy Towns, who were behind the garden project, hosted an opening event on Sunday.

Visitors will be intrigued to find the garden incorporates some of the large masonary stones earmarked for the Cong locke of the Cong Canal around the 1850s.

The old funeral road into Cong incorporating the tradition of the creesheens is also a central feature of the new garden.

All of the plants within the community garden have been specially selected and are all of a medicinal nature, in keeping with Dr. Kathleen Lynn, the group explained.