Personal life
Brigid Lyons was born in Northyard Scramogue, County Roscommon, on 13 May 1896. She was the daughter of farmer and Fenian Patrick Lyons and Margaret McGuinness. At a young age, Brigid moved to Longford to live with her uncle Frank McGuinness, later a senator, and his wife Kate, who paid for her secondary school education. McGuinness is credited for Thornton's keen interest in politics and Irish history. Brigid Lyons was a medical student and, as a member of Cumman na mBan, was involved with the Irish Volunteers during 1916. She was arrested during the Easter Rising and interned in Kilmainham Gaol.Revolutionary
She graduated from Galway medical school in 1922, being the youngest medical student there. 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.Marriage
Brigid Lyons married Captain Edward Thornton on 10 October 1925, in Dublin, at the Chapel of St Kevin in the Pro Cathedral. The ceremony was a quiet reunion of family and friends. Her husband returned to Switzerland to recover from TB and was later released and cured. He became a lawyer. Brigid Thornton attended the National University in 1947 and finished a postgraduate degree in public health. She was very passionate about her work in the public health system in Ireland and she resided permanently on home soil. Meanwhile her husband resided in Switzerland for most of the winter months, working as a lawyer, and their relationship was maintained through letter writing and yearly visits to Ireland. They are buried alongside each other in Toomore Cemetery.1916 Easter Rising
Lyons returned to Longford when she heard the news of the 1916Revolutionary activities
Lyons was involved inMedical 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 ofLater 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. Her retirement was spent as a researcher in Trinity College Dublin.Death
Brigid Lyons lived a long life, surviving her husband Captain Edward Thornton who died in 1946. The couple had no children. She suffered ill health in her late seventies but continued to work as a volunteer in the Rotunda Maternity Hospital. Lyons died of cardiac-respiratory arrest, as stated on her death certificate, on 15 November 1987 at the age of 91. She was buried on the 71st anniversary of theReferences
Bibliography
* Cowell, John, ''A Noontide Blazing: Brigid Lyons Thornton – Rebel, Soldier, Doctor'' (Dublin 2005) * McCarthy, Cal, ''Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution'' (Dublin 2007) * Mac Curtain, M and O'Corrain, D (eds.), ''Women in Irish Society'' (Dublin 1978) * McCoole, Sinead, ''No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923'' (Dublin 2003) * McKillen, Beth, 'Irish Feminism and National Separatism, 1914–23', ''Eire-Ireland'' 17 (1982) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Brigid Lyons 1896 births 1987 deaths Irish public health doctors National Army (Ireland) officers Irish women medical doctors People of the Easter Rising Cumann na mBan members Irish military doctors Women public health doctors People from Strokestown Medical doctors from County Roscommon 20th-century Irish medical doctors Alumni of the University of Galway