Call for new extension to Sligo University Hospital to honour pioneering nurse who tended the injured in 1916

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

At the December meeting of Sligo County Council, Cllr Edel McSharry proposed a motion calling on the Minister for Health, the CEO of the HSE, Tony Canavan, and Sligo University Hospital Manager, Gráinne McCann, to name the new 42-bed healthcare block in Sligo after Linda Kearns MacWhinney.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr McSharry said the motion is about “recognition, visibility and fairness”, particularly in how women’s contributions to health and public service are acknowledged.

Linda Kearns MacWhinney was born in Cloonagh, Dromard, Co. Sligo, in 1888. She trained as a nurse in Baggot Street Hospital in Dublin and went on to play a critical role during the 1916 Rising, establishing and running a Red Cross hospital to care for the wounded from all sides. During the War of Independence, she served as a courier and dispatch carrier, risking her life, enduring imprisonment and hunger strike, and escaping from Mountjoy Jail in 1921.

Crucially, Linda Kearns MacWhinney was also a national political leader at a time when women’s voices were largely excluded from public life. She was one of the first women to serve on the executive of Fianna Fáil and later served as a Senator, where she used her position to influence policy on health, nursing and social care in the early years of the State.

Through these political roles, she became a powerful advocate for the nursing profession. She campaigned for professional standards, nurse registration and the formal recognition of nursing as a vital pillar of Ireland’s developing health system. Her influence helped to shape how nursing and care were valued within public policy, not just within hospitals but at national level.

Her lifelong dedication to nursing was recognised internationally in 1951 when she became the first person in the Irish State to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross.

Cllr McSharry noted that while Linda Kearns MacWhinney is already commemorated through a plaque at Sligo University Hospital and memorials across the county, naming a major new healthcare facility after her would provide a permanent and visible statement of values.

“This new 42-bed block represents the future of healthcare delivery in Sligo,” she said. “Naming it after Linda Kearns MacWhinney would honour the nursing profession, recognise the historic contribution of women from Sligo to national life, and send a clear message to young people — particularly women — that leadership, service and courage are valued and remembered.”

The motion requests that correspondence from Sligo County Council explicitly highlight the importance of recognising women and indeed Nurses who shaped healthcare and public service, and the role that such recognition plays in inspiring future generations of nurses, carers and public servants.

“This is about getting our story right,” Cllr McSharry concluded. “Sligo has produced women of national and international significance. We should be proud to reflect that legacy in how we name and value our public buildings.”

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.