Letter from Dr Kathleen Lynn to Dora, 31 October 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Kathleen Lynn

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This is a letter from Dr. Kathleen Lynn 1874-1955) to a Dora (surname not given. The letter consists of a lengthy attempt to persuade Dora of the rightfulness of the Easter Rising and the Irish Nationalist cause. 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. After independence, Lynn played a major role in improving public health including the eradication of tuberculosis in Ireland.

Military Archives of Ireland Military Archives of Ireland, Br Allen Collection, 1916 Collection, IE/AL/1916/128 https://letters1916.ie/item/2983 English Kathleen Lynn 1916-10-31 Dora Female Politics Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Politics

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 . 31.10.16 My dearest Dora (?Sigerson) Surely you misunder-stand my letter. Did not I sayMc Bride had nothing to say to us& only joined one centre afterthe thing had started & that nothingin his life became him likethe leaving of it? Was not thisthe gist of what I said? By whatmental process do you construethat into saying I whitewashedhim or that I have changed myopinion of him as regards hisformer life? I have not changed myopinion of him, but I think thehidden nobleness in him cameout at the last. If I ever saidCountess Markieviecz's house wasa temptation to anyone it wasbefore I knew her, or, perhaps, whenher husband was there, his influencewas not for good, butmadame's always was, she has saved & succoured many a one who would otherwise have gone under. I know no one purer or kindlier, she would divide her last crust with anyone she thought wanted it more than she. As to removing my friends (from No.9) Miss ff.Mullen is very often out for the afternoon & there is no one else to remove. You need not write to me now about my extreme wickedness in daring to think it right to oppose unjust rule when your own infatible British Empire lauds & extols the Greek premier for revolting against the chosen king of Greece, not a king whose only right in the country was the right of might, but the beloved & revered king, I quote D - Murray in his recent lecture in the Parochial Hall here, where he stated that King Constantine was greatly beloved by his people for 3 reasons, 1, because he had so often led his people to victory, 2, because of his (2) miraculous recovery from mortalillness, on a very holy Icon beingbrought to him from a Greek village. The 3rd reason myinformant had forgotten. He alsothen stated that the assassinationof King — & Queen Draga was justifiable,for, tho' he held no brief forthe officers who did the deed, still,undoubtedly Roumania Serbia sufferedmuch from their tyranny, & thatsomething had to be done to endit. Therefore he holds that RoumaniaSerbiawas justified in freeing herself fromoppression, how could he then sayIreland was wrong to do the same.I think there are few in Ireland whowould uphold the assassinationof the Ard Rig, if there were one.It does not seem as if D - Murraywere the person to show me theerror of my ways! As long as you are persuaded thatwhat is, is right, & that England is justified injustified in wringing the life blood from Ireland, Egypt & India to fatten herself, there is no more to be said. I hold that England is not justified, that she has transgressed the law of God, to set up her own law, calling it His, and that, as God always works by human means, our people were right in the step they took. The Irish in Ireland are a vanishing quantity, let things go on as they have been & in a few years there will be no Irish left — self-preservation is the unerring (God-given) instinct of individuals & nations, therefore the oppressed rise to throw of the bonds which are strangling them & they are justified in the sight of God & all men except those imbued with the spirit of tyranny in doing so. You blame me bitterly for concealing my views, instead of blaming the tyranny which makes such concealment inevitable, there are many, whose names I find out by degrees, but am not at liberty to mention, who do the same, (3) & for the same reason, peoplethat you would never suspectof any such thing, whom yourespect & look up to. Ten in goodcompany. Talking of Madam Markiewiecz,you say her husbandwent away & she did not bringup her own child. Surely if herhusband chose to go for a timeto his own family in Poland hehad a deleted textperfect right to do so& this casts no slur on him orher, & is it not quite usualfor grandmothers to take a grandchildto bring up? It is doneagain & again & is a purelydomestic convenience. My conception of right & wrong,if you mean by that my conceptionof law has certainlyaltered since I knew the Brehonsystem & compared it withthe Anglo-Norman, the formerupholds the spirit, the latteradheres rigidly to the letter &you know St Paul's comparisonof letter & spirit. The purity ofany person's motives is judged fairly accurately by the amountthey are prepared to give up fortheir principles. We went outwith our lives in our hands,to every human being the mostsupremely valuable possession.Expediency, which means usuallyself-preservation, would havekept us at home. I do not think myself infalible,but nothing you have toldme has in the least shownme I am wrong. You are narrow& onesided to an extent amazingin one of your education, youseem absolutely imperviousto reason. You call me ignorantbecause I refuse to see throughyour eyes alone & cut off allthe deleted textbig, pitiful other side, I can'tconsent to this. Prove to me thatIreland exported no food stuffsduring the famine years, 45-48& I will believe you are right,prove to me that England is notdoing the same thing now & thatcattle, bacon, eggs, butter, grains (4) are not leaving the country &that adequate provision isbeing made to avert the famine& I will believe the disinterestednessof England's dealings withIreland. You know perfectlywell you can't do it, youknow England's occupationof Ireland has been one longseries of devastations, of whichthe last is by no means themost inconsiderable. Is thereany other country in the worldwhich would have contemplatedshelling of all the coasttowns in order to put downa handful of people who roseagainst them? If any othercountry thought of such a thingwhat a howl of exsacration itwould raise in Christian England!I think I mentioned the famineof the forties to you before &that you took no notice of it.Please don't do the same now.I know you do love me still, don'tyou think you could try to believe in me a little? Why are you sosure of your infalibility? My love, dearest.K. The service of one's country is ahigher duty than the serviceof oneself or one's friends 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]