The Kathleen Lynn Garden is a beautiful new addition to the village of Cong. The garden was created by the Cong Village Tidy Towns with the support of local community groups and businesses and Mayo County Council.
The garden is located at the southern end of the car park at the entrance to the village.
The garden is dedicated to the memory of Dr Kathleen Lynn (28 January 1874 – 14 September 1955). Dr Lynn had an interest in the healing powers of wild plants and this is represented in the garden around you.
Dr Lynn was an Irish politician, activist and doctor. She was the Chief Medical Officer for the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Easter Rising and she established St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital in 1919 to provide for impoverished mothers and infants in Dublin.
Dr Lynn came to Cong in 1886 when her father, Rev. Robert Young Lynn, took over as clergyman of the Church of Ireland parish. There are many stories of her kindness to people from both faiths in this parish while she lived amongst us and the poverty she had seen here led to her desire to become a doctor and political activist.
More information about Dr Lynn is available here
A number of the unused large, dressed masonry blocks from the Cong Canal have been incorporated into the Kathleen Lynn Garden.
Work on the Cong Canal commenced in 1848 and was halted in 1854. The canal was intended to connect Lough Corrib and Lough Mask and provide navigation from Galway to Ballinrobe.
The second lock lies to the east of the garden and was never completed. The gate at the south of the garden was created to allow horses to pass through as there was no tow path at this point.
More information about the Cong Canal is available here
The line of the old funeral road entering Cong Village from the east passes through the Kathleen Lynn Garden and is marked on the ground. Originally funerals passed along established routes into Cong and stopped at certain spots to leave a small wooden cross and say a prayer. These places were referred to as “Crusheens” (from the Irish “croisin” meaning cross).
The tradition continues to this day and the most prominent of the Crusheens can be seen adjacent to the Joyce Monument which lies approximately half a mile north-west of Cong on the Cong-Clonbur road.