Mad in Pursuit Notebook
Elizabeth Dunne Kilmartin
Surviving the worst
Sixth child, Lizzie Kilmartin suffered the consequences of Church interference in 1930's Irish healthcare. But as her world collapsed, she and her children benefitted from the fierce love of her family in their tiny eastern Galway village.
14 Jul 1898. On a summer’s day in Ballaghduff, 31-year-old Catherine Martin Dunne gives birth to her sixth child and fourth daughter, Elizabeth, known as “Lizzie.” She is named after her paternal aunt Lizzie Dunne Hanley, who lives a few miles away in Ballygar, with her own growing family.
1906. With her townland mate Brigid Mullin, 8-year-old Lizzie is enrolls in the Curraghmore National School, where her sisters Bridget and Mary are already students.
1911. The census finds Lizzie and her three sisters at home. On this day, her sister Ellen is in St. Louis, her brother Mike is working in England, and her sibs John, Bridget, and Pat are residing at the family house at Cooloo.
28 Feb 1927. At the age of 28, Lizzie marries Martin Kilmartin at the Catholic Church in Kilkerrin. Their union is witnessed by Martin Turnian (?) and Lizzie’s younger sister Margaret. Kilmartin is a 37-year-old bachlor from the nearby townland of Carrintubber. He is a stonemason, following in the footsteps of his father Patrick.
They set up residence in Ballaghduff and waste no time starting their family.
Jan-Mar 1928. Patrick “Paddy” is born. (Q1, according to the Civil Birth Registrations)
13 Sept 1928. Catherine “Kitty” is born—Paddy’s Irish twin.
1930-31. Lizzie is pregnant with her third child. When the time comes, a problem arises that rules out routine labor and delivery. A caesarean section is needed but the procedure is banned by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Their cousin Father Tom Hanley of Ballygar pleads with the local bishop to give Lizzie a dispensation. The bishop refuses. Her sister Katie, newly home from the U.S., hires a car and races Lizzie to Dublin, hoping for a modern medical intervention, despite the Catholic prohibition.
However, instead of a C-section, Lizzie likely gets a symphysiotomy. This archaic procedure widens the pelvic opening by slicing through ligaments and cartilege, or in some cases the pelvic bone itself. The surgery fails. The baby is lost (because labor was still required) and Lizzie is left crippled for life.
Critics blame the continued use of the operation on a toxic mix of medical experimentation, Catholic aversion to caesarean sections and an institutional disregard for women’s autonomy. They claim it has left hundreds of surviving women with life-long pain, disability and emotional trauma. For some in Ireland, it is yet another scandal perpetrated against women and girls, joining revelations over the Magdalene laundries (where “wayward” women were abused), the deaths of children at mother-and-baby homes, and sex abuse in the Catholic church. [See The Guardian reference under Notes]
Whatever actually transpired medically for Lizzie, her world collapses. She is bedridden until her death eighteen years later.
Her dear husband Martin, described by all as a lovable man, falls apart. He can’t cope and leaves the community forever, to live out his days as a stonemason in Birmingham, England. According to his granddaughter Maura:
[Kitty and Paddy] had only good to say about their own Dad… he sent the money home now and again and I know the landlady where he stayed used to write to Grandma saying he was ok etc…. [Facebook Messenger, 2019]
Lizzie bravely makes the best of the situation. She runs the household from her bed, making Paddy and Kitty use mirrors to show her their chores were done. And, of course, she is surrounded by her helpful family. Brother Mike, a bachelor in his forties, himself with a permanent limp from a broken hip, takes charge. He commandeers his teenage nieces Vera and Grett Stephens to move in with the Kilmartins to help out.
Lizzie’s granddaughter Maura reports:
I asked Mam [Kitty] once if nobody ever got her a wheelchair and it turns out they did but it totally overwhelmed her, they brought her outside and up the road straight away, whereas they should just have brought her to the kitchen for a short while and then back to bed. She wouldn’t go back in it again!!! [Facebook Messenger, 2019]
5 Jun 1942. At age 80, Lizzie’s father Michael dies,
25 Nov 1944. Lizzie’s mother Catherine dies.
Sept 1947. The family receives word that Lizzie’s husband Martin has died in Birmingham. We don’t know the cause.
12 Oct 1948. At the age of 50, Lizzie dies at home, with Michael at her side. On her death registration, the cause is recorded as “probably tubercular disease of spine,” but is more likely to be the longterm consequences of the paralyzing surgery.
Notes
Description of the events in this story were provided in 2007 by Lizzie’s daughter Kitty, her granddaughter Maura, and her cousins Paddy, Maureen, and Carmel. The timeframe was figured out after conferring with Maureen, who agreed it had to occur between sister Katie’s return from the U.S. in June 1930 and Katie's marriage in November, 1931.
*PHOTO at top: Lizzie Dunne Kilmartin (on right) with William Naughton and family. This is the only known photo of Lizzie, so I enhanced her image with Photoshop AI. Below is the original image, courtesy of her granddaughter Maura.
“Catholic Church did urge doctors to use symphysiotomy operation,” The Irish Times, 19 Sept 2003.
“Symphysiotomy – Ireland’s brutal alternative to caesareans,” The Guardian, 12 Dec 2014.
28 March 2020, updated 23 October 2025
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