Letter from Maud Joynt to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 28 May 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Maud Joynt

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This is a letter from Maud Joynt (1868-1940) to Dr Kathleen Lynn (1874-1955). Joynt offers her thoughts and sympathy to Dr Lynn, imprisoned after the Rising, and suggests that Lynn may soon face deportation. Joynt discusses the Easter Rising, stating her support for the aims of the insurrection's leaders but doubting 'that they chose the best means of advancing their cause'. Maud Joynt was a Celtic scholar and linguist, a holder of Bachelor's and Master's degrees in modern literature, and an advocate for women's access to higher education and employment.Dr Kathleen Lynn was a medical practitioner, a suffragist, a nationalist, and a revolutionary. Lynn was Chief Medical Officer of the Irish Citizen Army during Easter 1916, and was a part of the City Hall garrison, of which she took command of the garrison after the death of Seán Connolly on the first day of the Rising. After independence, Lynn played a major role in improving public health, playing a significant role in the eradication of tuberculosis in Ireland.

 Military Archives of Ireland Br. Allen Collection, IE/AL/KL/1/18 https://letters1916.ie/item/837 English Maud Joynt 1916-05-28 21 Annesley Park, Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland Kathleen Lynn Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland Female Easter Rising Ireland 1916

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 21 Annesley Park, Rathmines, May 28 1916 My dear Dr. Lynn, I was at Mountjoy last Thursday afternoon & saw Miss Moloney & from her I learnt that your future movements are still undecided, but that there is some pro spect of your leaving Dublin or at any rate your present quarters before long. As I may not be able to see you, I am going to write a few lines just to tell you that I have often thought of you during these troubled times & have felt deep sympathy with you. I do not want to say anything about recent events, for tough I am quite able to sympathise with some of the aims of the leaders in the movement. I cannot believe that they chose the best means of advancing their cause. But I do not for a moment doubt the purity & disinterestedness of their motives— at least those of them whom I know anything of — & I admire their courage; & I can never forget that they loved Ireland. As for you , nothing that has happened has altered my opinion of your character or lessened the admiration I have always felt for you. Perhaps to be honest, I should say that I have changed my opinion in one particular; I always believed you to be a woman of strong common sense, & I am beginning to doubt that now. But though common sense is a valuable quality in everyday life & a substitute for nearly all the virtues (at least I notice that the people who possess it in a high degree get credit for virtues whether they have then or not), I really think I like you better since finding that you haven't so much of it as I once thought. If you have made a mistake (which is not for me to decide), you will find it out yourself & be all the better for it: for I believe that the mistakes we make with honest intentions are often the greatest use to us afterwards & the people who never make any are not the wisest. Goodbye & love from your friend, Maud Joynt 21 Annesley Park, Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland Letter from Maud Joynt to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 28 May 1916 Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland Letter from Major W.S. Lennon to Madge Daly, 4 May 1916Letter from Maud Joynt to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 28 May 1916Letter to Dr Kathleen Lynn from the Assistant Provost Marshal, 28 May 1916Letter from Éamonn Ceannt to Áine Ceannt, 5 May 1916Letter from Jack (J.J.) Heuston to Mr. E. Walsh, 7 May 1916.Letter from Sean MacDiarmada to John Daly, 8 May 1916 Maud Joynt Letter from Maud Joynt to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 28 May 1916 Kathleen Lynn Letter from Dr Kathleen Lynn to the Deputy Adjutant General at Parkgate, 26 May 1916Letter from Maud Joynt to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 28 May 1916Letter to Dr Kathleen Lynn from the Assistant Provost Marshal, 28 May 1916Letter from Dr Kathleen Lynn to Miss Carney, 6 June 1916Letter from Robert Childers Barton to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 11 July 1916Letter from Major C. Harold Heathcote to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 13 October 1916Letter from Kathleen Lynn to Nancy O'Rahilly, 23 November 1916.Letter from Dr Kathleen Lynn to Dora, 31 October 1916Letter from John Pedder to Dr Kathleen Lynn, 2 August 1916Letter from Dr Kathleen Lynn, [post-April 1916]