To many people the story of Dr James Barry, or Margaret Anne Bulkey is a new one, only uncovered in the recent past by historians. But back in 1974, some fifty years ago the Irish Examiner featured this remarkable story of a young woman from Cork who fooled the British and South African establishments amongst others. As the Examiner reported:

FOR over a hundred years the story of Dr. James Barry who served more than 40 years as a surgeon in the British army, becoming inspector general of army hospitals, and who was shown at her death in 1865 to have been a woman, has attracted many writers. Two novels, "A Modern Sphinx' by E. Rokers (1881), "Dr James Barry — Her Secret Story" by Olga Racster and Jessica Grove (1932), have been written about her, and there have been numerous magazine articles. The first factual biography, "The Strange story of Dr. James Barry", by Isobel Rae was published by Longmans in 1958.

Isobel Rae had access to the "Barry Papers'' in the British War Office and was disappointed to discover that there was no postmortem report that would establish Barry's Female sex. What the papers do contain is a statement by the charwoman who prepared Barry's body for burial that she was "a perfect female" and had a child when very young.

James Barry, M.D., joined the British army as hospital assistant in 1813 and was posted to the Plymouth garrison. The medical officer objected to his new assistant on account of his childish appearance, but his objection was over-ruled and in August 181G James Barry, M.D., arrived at Cape Town as assistant surgeon. The slightly built, five-foot assistant surgeon, with smooth pale face, high cheek bones, reddish hair, large eyes, and 'long Ciceronian nose' appeared at the Cape as a young officer with considerable self-assurance and a certain flamboyance in dress. She wore a plumed cocked hat, long spurs and a large sword. Lord Albemarle met her in 1819 and described her as "'a beardless lad, with a certain effeminacy in his manner which he was always trying to overcome" but Albemarle’s memoirs were not published until 11 years after Barry's death.

Barry visited St. Helena in 1817 during Napoleon's exile served in Mauritius, Jamaica, St. there. Las Caras, a Frenchman, who had gone into exile with Napoleon, and whose memoirs were published in 1823, gives us the only genuine contemporary description of Dr. Barry. "The grave doctor, who was presented to me, was a boy of 18, with the form, the manners and the voice of a woman. But Mr. Barry (such was his name) was described to me to be an absolute phenomenon I was informed that he had obtained his diploma at the age of 13 after the most rigid examination and that he had performed extraordinary cures at the Cape". 

James Barry had indeed already gained fame as surgeon. She performed a successful Caesarean section in 1820, apparently the first time that mother and child were saved in such an operation. A descendant of that child was General Hertzog, Prime Minister of South Africa, who was christened James Barry Munnik Hertzog.

She became Inspector General of hospitals in 1858 and was retired on half pay the following year when she must have been over 65. The story of her being female was first published in a Dublin newspaper, Saunders' Newsletter on August 14, 1865 three weeks after her death in London. Her death certificate stated that she was "a male person of about 70 years of age". She was buried in Kensal Green.