30th January 2001
Nothing makes a book seem more interesting, I have discovered, than one which contains a rather flattering profile of oneself. "Women in Parliament, Ireland 1918-2000", written by Maedhbh McNamara, Assistant Librarian in the Leinster House Library and Senator Pascal Mooney, was published before Christmas. It discusses the election of women to the Parliaments of Ireland, North and South, to Westminster and to Europe and gives profiles of the successful candidates.
Despite the fact that women were eligible to be candidates and to vote since 1918 the book is not that large because only 5% approximately of those who made up the various legislative bodies from then to now have been women. (So the next time anyone starts blaming politicians for the woes of Ireland they should remember women politicians are to blame for only 5%).
After I read the entry on myself several times - why I needed to read it several times I cannot imagine, seeing that the facts were known to me already - I looked at the profile of the other women doctors who had been in Irish Parliaments.
There was only one in Northern Ireland, Eileen Mary Hickey. Born in 1887, she was elected in 1949 as an Independent member for Queens University. She appears to have had a distinguished academic career in Queens and the Mater Hospital and must have been quite a successful politician because her electorate kept her in Stormont until 1958. (Maedhbh McNamara would, I am sure, be grateful for more information on this lady which might be known to readers).
Dr. Ada English was elected to the Second Dáil in 1921 with those indefatigable ladies, Kathleen Clarke, Mary McSwiney, Constance Markievicz, Kathleen O'Callaghan and Margaret Pearse. All the elected women opposed the Treaty. Ada (Adeline) English was born in Mullingar in 1878 and was elected as a member of Sinn Féin to represent the National University of Ireland. Dr. English was one of the first women to graduate from the Catholic University School of Medicine in Cecilia Street and worked in the Mater, Richmond and Temple Street before going to St. Brigid's Psychiatric Hospital, Ballinasloe. She worked tirelessly there for the rest of her life as Resident Medical Superintendent.
Her involvement in politics began in Ballinasloe where she set up a branch of Cumann na mBan in 1915. She was a medical officer with the Irish Volunteers and was in Athenry during the 1916 Rising. She gave Eamon de Valera and Liam Mellows "asylum" in the hospital several times - it, after all, was then known as a "lunatic asylum"!
Dr. English was in the Hamman Hotel (now The Gresham) with Cathal Brugha in 1922. Many more details of this formidable lady are given. She refused promotion to Sligo Hospital because of her devotion to her Ballinasloe patients and when she died in 1944 she was buried, by her own wish, beside her patients near the Mental Hospital
Kathleen Lynn, born in Cong, Co. Mayo in 1874 has always been a heroine of mine. Having at one stage attended the same school as she did, Alexandra College, I already knew quite a bit about her. She was one of the first women to obtain a medical degree from the Royal University and, although elected a house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, was unable to take up the position because the male doctors there refused to work with her.
On she went to Sir Patrick Dun's, as did I, but not after a refusal to take me in by the Adelaide where I did work later. She was an activist with the Suffragettes and acted as a medical attendant to them during their militant campaign which lead to imprisonment and hunger strikes in 1912.
Dr. Lynn's activities in the Citizen Army are well known and she was assigned to the St. Stephen's Green Unit during the 1916 Easter Rising. After the Rising she was imprisoned but on her release from gaol immediately and simultaneously began medical and political work.
Although elected to the Dáil in 1923 as a member of Sinn Féin for Dublin County she was an abstentionist and did not take her seat. From then on she concentrated on medical matters at St. Ultan's Hospital for children which she founded in 1919 with other women who had been with her in the Citizen Army. Many interesting details on the activities of St. Ultan's are given, including the fundraising events which were needed to keep the hospital going.
(Amazing to think that we still need fundraising for hospitals. Every time I hear cheerful Charlie McCreevy telling us to drink up our champagne I wonder does he read Vincent Browne's reports on the conditions in some wards in our psychiatric hospitals? Yes, I know things are improving but why shouldn't everywhere be splendid by now?)
From the 30s to the 70s there were usually only three or four women in the Dáil and much the same in the Seanad. The 80s and 90s have seen more women elected so we can now be blamed for 15% of the woes of the country.
One would have hoped that by now more equal representation of women would be seen everywhere but this is not so. The members of the Manpower Forum in a photograph in the Irish Medical News of 29 January seems to be entirely male despite the fact that nearly 60% of Irish medical graduates are female. No wonder the headline over the text accompanying this photograph is "Difficulties abound in Manpower Talks"! I complained about the lack of women when the Forum was set up. I bet Ada and Kathleen would have had something to say about this matter.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
