Linda Kearns MacWhinney

Linda Mary Kearns MacWhinney (; 1 July 1888 – 5 June 1951) was an Irish nurse and Fianna Fáil politician.

Early life Born in Cloonagh, Dromard, County Sligo, she was one of eight children born to Thomas and Catherine "Nora" (née Clarke) Kearns.

Easter Rising Two days after the insurgents seized the Dublin GPO during the Easter Rising in April 1916, Kearns, a nurse, took over an empty building on North Great George's Street. She hung a Red Cross flag above the door and welcomed casualties of the fighting, from both sides of the conflict. However, as she had treated republican volunteers during the uprising, the British Army ordered Kearns to close her unofficial hospital. She did so, with great reluctance.

After the Rising May Burke (left), Eithne Coyle (centre) and Linda Kearns (right) in Duckett’s Grove, Carlow, 1921, standing on the Union Jack. The photograph was taken shortly after their escape from Mountjoy Kearns appearing on the cover of her book "In Times of Peril" She realised she had skills that could be useful in times of war. After the Rising she went into private nursing. As a nurse she helped fight the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic on Achill Island. She was the nurse to the O'Connor Morris family in Tullamore and traveled extensively with them. After Maurice O'Connor Morris's death on 11 February 1916, he left Linda an inheritance of £2,500. She was able to purchase a car, which would later come in useful during the Irish War of Independence when she worked as a courier for Michael Collins transporting information and sometimes arms. Her status as a nurse helped her evade detection until she was caught in November 1920 in Sligo transporting firearms. The county inspector reported her arrest as follows:

In a statement to the Bureau of Military History in 1950, Kearns alleged she was badly beaten during her arrest by a Black and Tan Officer, so much so she suffered permanent damage to her teeth. She served time in a number of Irish prisons before being sent to Walton Prison in Liverpool, where she went on hunger strike.

From there she was sent to Mountjoy Prison. In October 1921, she famously escaped from Mountjoy Jail with three other women, Mae Burke, Eileen Keogh, and Eithne Coyle.

During the Battle of Dublin (28 June to 5 July 1922) Kearns served as a nurse and was present at the death of Republican leader Cathal Brugha.

Her memoir, In Times of Peril, leaves from the Diary of Nurse Linda Kearns from Easter Week 1916 to Mountjoy 1921 was edited by Annie M.P. Smithson in 1922.

Linda Kearns was one of five women elected to the executive of Fianna Fáil when it was formed in 1926.

In May 1951 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale medal by the International Red Cross in recognition of her services to nursing.