The diaries of Kathleen Lynn draws together the political and social history of the first half of twentieth-century Ireland. The diaries begin with the end of Lynn's Easter Rising on Easter Monday 1916 and her subsequent imprisonment. Her political life remains a theme over the decades that follow but also packed into each diary entry are details of her religious devotion, social networks, work in St Ultan's Hospital and engagement with developing medical practice. The diaries provide an insight into a life ‘brimming with activity, energy and deep commitment to her beliefs’ (p. xv). They also provide Lynn's unique viewpoint as a Protestant republican and practicing medical doctor fighting high infant mortality in Dublin during the early years of the Irish Free State and beyond.

The Kathleen Lynn of the diaries had already established herself as a doctor and politically as a republican feminist. Many of Lynn's most important relationships, particularly with her life partner Madeline ffrench-Mullen and close friend Helena Molony (referred to throughout the diaries as Emer) had also been formed before the diaries begin. Nonetheless, the editors provide a comprehensive introduction, which charts Lynn's course from her childhood in County Mayo to her first diary entry at the age of forty-two. Select entries look back to the beginning of the twentieth century and hint at the development of Lynn's political outlook from unionist to republican. However, for the most part, Lynn's diaries focus on the period 1916 to 1955. Entries detail an often-eclectic routine: social occasions, home life, daily appointments with patients, political activism and board meetings, as well as travel and the occasional state event. It is only in the last section, aptly titled by the editors ‘Life after Madeline’ (referring to the death of ffrench-Mullen), that entries frequently include reminiscences, mainly of ffrench-Mullen and of 1916.

The original diaries are now digitised in full and available online through the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (R.C.P.I.) website. In this volume, the editors have used their expertise in gender, social, political and revolutionary history, as well as the history of medicine, to select a representative sample of entries. They have also done considerable work to aid the modern reader. Lynn's handwriting can be hard to read in the original, which is further complicated by the compact nature of many entries, squeezed into one line. The diaries are also full of abbreviations and codenames for friends and relatives. The editors have included a list of abbreviations and some short biographies following the introduction. These aids, along with footnotes to important events and individuals within the transcriptions, allow for greater context and a thorough appreciation of Lynn's wide interest in the social and political landscape of both Ireland and further afield.

One of the most striking aspects of the diaries is how Lynn writes about large-scale political events alongside details of her day-to-day life, her household tasks or fears for certain infants in St Ultan's Hospital. The diaries reveal the concerns of Lynn's social circle and work colleagues, from the fight against tuberculosis to fears over the atomic bomb in the 1940s and interest in a pharaoh's curse after the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun. These social concerns play out alongside, and often relate to, Lynn's disillusionment with the Irish state through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

The editors have also chosen to address in their introduction Lynn's expressions of antisemitism. They consider that these sentiments sit uneasily alongside Lynn's friendships with members of the Irish Jewish community. Additionally, Lynn's Anglophobia, expressed frequently though diary entries, appears to be an attempt to reconcile her deeply held Protestant faith and her Irish republican identity. This adds important nuance to our understanding of Lynn's life and beliefs, and prevents the idealisation of figures from the past.

The diaries of Kathleen Lynn is an important contribution to the social and political history of Ireland. It demonstrates how a feminist, republican and socialist in Ireland perceived the early decades of the twentieth century. The diaries have already been of immense value to researchers as the ‘single most consulted item’ (pp xvi–xvii) in the R.C.P.I. archive and the publication of this selection is a welcome development. The work involved in this edition to make the diaries more accessible will be of immense value to historians of medicine, social networks, family history, queer history and transnational histories of activism.