Brigid Lyons Thornton

Brigid Lyons Thornton (13 May 1896 – 15 November 1987) was an Irish republican who was a member of Cumann na mBan, an officer in the Irish Free State Army and a doctor. At a young age, Brigid moved to Longford to live with her uncle Frank McGuinness, later a senator, She became the first commissioned female officer in the new Irish Free State Army. She and her later husband Edward Thornton met when Brigid became ill with tuberculosis and was sent to Switzerland with other officers who had a similar condition. During this time Lyons learned how to treat tuberculosis while she was a patient, which would be a significant advantage in later years. She took her postgraduate diploma in public health in 1927 and then entered the public health service in County Kildare, later moving to County Cork until she finally ended up in Dublin where she worked until retirement. Lyons helped to treat many infectious diseases. After the surrender, she was held captive in Kilmainham Jail with her comrades. During that imprisonment, she heard that fourteen of leaders of the Rising, people she admired, had been shot. After her release, she returned to continue studying medicine in Galway.

Revolutionary activities Lyons was involved in Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan, although women were limited by their male counterparts in the scope of their revolutionary activities. However, Lyons contributed as a rebel, soldier and commissioned medical officer. In 1917 she set up a Cumann na mBan group in Galway. Later she became a first lieutenant in 1922 and was commissioned by Michael Collins as the first and only woman to be accepted as officer in the Free State Army when a new, permanent medical service was established.

Medical career Thornton dedicated her life to both revolutionary activities and the medical sector; she was a practitioner, lecturer and researcher. Her involvement as a doctor was not only hospital work but that of a volunteer. She was an avid educator of women on the importance of hygiene in the development of children and factors of disease that flourished in the impoverished slums of the inner city and surrounding suburbs. This work was marginalised by the lack of funds for a public health service to help ordinary people. Clean water was a commodity at this time and a strain of gastroenteritis was the cause of death of many babies.

Later life She was a librarian in the Rotunda Hospital, where she was an advisor to the new doctors. Lyons was heavily involved in the Medical Benevolent Fund.