Kathleen Lynn, a commanding officer at City Hall in Dublin during the Rising, was . . . along with Countess Markievicz . . . one of the highest-ranking women in the Easter Week rebellion. Residents at Lynn's birthplace on the outskirts of Killala are objecting to a proposal to locate a waste disposal facility in the area. A petition urging the protection of the Lynn birthplace has been sent to all the main political parties.

The campaign has received the support of historian, Sinead McCoole. "Kathleen Lynn was a significant woman in Irish history and her birthplace should be commemorated. If this was in another country, it would be a designated site, " McCoole has said.

Lynn, who came from an Anglican tradition, was one of the first three women to qualify as a doctor in Ireland in 1899. An opponent of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, and an abstentionist member of the Dail in the 1920s, she remained a local government councillor in the Rathmines area of Dublin until 1930.

The Mayo woman was included in a RTE Radio One listeners' poll last year on the top 10 women in Irish history.

As part of RTE's output during the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, the station is re-editing its programme on the women who participated in the rebellion to include material about the Co Mayo doctor.

The baptismal water font of Kathleen Lynn, which had been in storage for several years, was recently restored by Gerry Ginty, a monument sculptor in Co Mayo. The font was installed last month at a ceremony at Killala Cathedral.