GOVERNMENT WILL NOT oppose a Seanad motion calling for the new Children’s Hospital to be named after Dr Kathleen Lynn. 

Lynn was a suffragette and doctor who co-founded Saint Ultan’s Children’s Hospital in Dublin in 1919 with her partner Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. 

The hospital closed in the 1980s when it merged with the National Children’s Hospital on Harcourt Street, which in turn was later relocated to Tallaght Hospital.

Lynn, who was from Mayo, was the chief medical officer for the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising.

The motion is being brought forward by Fianna Fáil’s Mary Fitzpatrick and Catherine Ardagh. Previously, Sinn Féin has also called for the new hospital to be named after Lynn, with some unions also backing the move. 

A Government spokesperson told reporters today that the motion would not be opposed this week in the Seanad, but added that Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is undergoing a “branding process” for the new hospital, which will include the naming of the new hospital. 

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The Government acknowledge the importance of naming the new hospital, said the spokesperson, who added that ultimately it will be a Government decision on who it will be named after. 

Previously, a spokesperson for the Children’s Hospital Group (which comprises the three current hospitals) told TheJournal the group’s board has “approved a process to engage staff in the three children’s hospitals and across the paediatric units in the regional hospitals, children, parents and the public in a creative process to create our new name”.

The spokesperson said the new name should be “unifying” and “consistent with the development of other aspects of the organisation” such as the successful integration of three children’s hospitals and the reconfiguration of paediatric services in Dublin.