Her mother, Anne Marie (née Burke), had no dealings with the business or estate and died two years later leaving Lynch an orphan.

She eventually decided to become a nun there, entering the enclosed Dominican Order in St Mary's Convent, Dún Laoghaire (then called Kingstown), on 5 July 1896.

[1][7][8] She also held a devotion to Saint Columba and greatly revered the medieval Columban Irish monks who produced the masterpieces of Insular illumination such as The Book of Kells.

[2] To commemorate the end of the First World War, a small oratory was built at the convent, to house a statue sent in recognition of the men of the area who died in Belgium.

Beginning the next year, in 1920, Lynch first worked on the wall behind the statue, which stood above the altar, to provide it with a proper setting, in an Eastern Christian or Byzantine medieval style; and on the Gaelic script over the entrance door.

The couple were music hall entertainers, famous in their role as Pantomime dame and Principal boy, and raised funds for the oratory through benefit concerts.

The overall artistic scheme was inspired following a vision at night in which the oratory appeared 'alight with colours in serpentine bands'[10] and the design conceived was rigidly adhered to from the start throughout the years.