Kearns-MacWhinney, Linda (1888–1951)
Kearns-MacWhinney, Linda (1888–1951)
Irish politician and nurse. Name variations: Linda Kearns; Linda MacWhinney. Born Linda Kearns, July 1888 in Dromard, Co. Sligo, Ireland; died June 5, 1951, in Howth, Co. Dublin.
Began career as a nurse; joined Cumann na mBan; set up a Red Cross hospital and served as a dispatch carrier for rebels during the Rising (1916); opened a nursing home in Dublin (1919) which was also used as a safe house for Volunteers in peril; imprisoned and escaped (1920–21); imprisoned and released (1922–23); was a founder member of Fianna Fáil (1926) and a member of its national executive; joined with National Council of Women to fight the discriminatory Conditions of Employment Bill (1935); elected to the Seanad from the Industrial and Commercial Panel (1938). Received the Florence Nightingale medal from the International Red Cross (1951).
See also Annie Smithson, ed. In Times of Peril: Leaves from the Diary of Nurse Linda Kearns from Easter Week, 1916 to Mountjoy, 1921 (Talbot, 1922).