Irish Medical Lives

Professor Trevor Duffy, Consultant Rheumatologist at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in Dublin, is one of the best known ‘medical politicians’ of his generation, having started his political career as an NCHD during the health service disputes of the late 1990s and risen through the ranks to become President of the Irish Medical Organisation, in 2014. In this episode, the remarkably sel...

Dr Fergal Hickey , emeritus consultant in emergency medicine in Sligo University Hospital, where he was first appointed in 1995, is someone’s whose voice is familiar to every radio listener and TV viewer who is concerned with the functioning and state of Ireland’s emergency departments. At a national level, as well as being the official spokesman for his speciality, Fergal has long been  prim...

Professor Garry Courtney, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Clinical Director at St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, is National Clinical Lead in the Acute Medicine Programme, Regional Programme Director for BST/HST at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and Treasurer of the Irish Society of Gastroenterology.  In this episode, Garry explains his close connections with the Tyrone Gaelic Foo...

Professor Niall O’Higgins , Professor of Surgery Emeritus at University College Dublin, he was Professor of Surgery at UCD and St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin between 1977 and 2007 , President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland between 2004 and 2006, and Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Bahrain, between 2008 and 2011. Since his ‘retirement’...

Professor Trevor Duffy , Consultant Rheumatologist at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in Dublin, is one of the best known ‘medical politicians’ of his generation, having started his political career as an NCHD during the health service disputes of the late 1990s and risen through the ranks to become President of the Irish Medical Organisation, in 2014. In this episode, the remarkably self-depreca...

Professor Geraldine McCarthy  is a Consultant Rheumatologist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin and Professor of Medicine at University College Dublin. Geraldine undertook her Fellowship in Rheumatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the United States, where she developed her interest in calcium crystal deposition disease. Since then, she’s led studies into the b...

Dr Philip Crowley is the National Director of Strategy and Research at the Health Service Executive or HSE in Ireland. Originally a ‘public health trained’ general practitioner, he is also adjunct associate professor at the School of Health Sciences in University College Dublin, and adjunct faculty at the Institute of Leadership in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. His career path has been...

Dr Aisling Loy ,  Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, is the national specialty director for GUM training, medical director of  Himerus Health  (a highly rated private STD clinic in Dublin’s Portobello), a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin and Medical Director for women’s health service and anti-human trafficking HSE clinic. In addition to b...

Professor Jonathan Hourihane , one of the world’s leading paediatric allergists, is Head and Professor of Paediatrics in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland University of Medicine and Health Sciences and consultant paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital Ireland in Temple St, in Dublin. He was previously Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health in University College Cork. Professor Hourihan...

Interviewees at the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) Annual Conference in Dublin on Saturday, September 30th 2023:  Professor Garry Courtney, Consultant Physician at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny and the HSE National Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine  Dr Rob Hendry, Medical Director, Medical Protection Society Ms Eleanor Faul, Consultant General and Colorectal...

This podcast is essential listening for anyone interested in adolescent psychiatry and addiction services in Ireland. Professor Bobby Smyth , Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, trained in Ireland and the UK, before taking up his current post in the Adolescent Addiction Services in South Dublin. He is a prolific author of peer-reviewed scientific articles, most recently about ‘head shop...

Professor Tony O’Brien , recently retired Clinical Professor of Palliative Medicine, at University College Cork, and Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine at Cork University Hospital and Marymount University Hospital and Hospice, is one of the great pioneers of Palliative Medicine in Ireland. Following his training with the legendary Dame Cicely Saunders, at St Christopher’s Hospice in Londo...

Professor Gaye Cunnane , Consultant Rheumatologist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, Director of Health and Wellbeing at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and prolific author, has one of the wisest and warmest voices in contemporary Irish medicine. In this episode of  Irish Medical Lives , she recalls an academically stellar career, which took her through St Vincent’s in Dublin, UCS...

Dr Austin O Carroll, the renowned Inner City Dublin general practitioner and advocate for the marginalised, is one of contemporary Ireland’s most charismatic and practical humanitarians. He has co-created several specialised primary care services for homeless people: e.g., Safetynet, the umbrella organisation for primary care services provided in hostels, food halls and drop-in centres in Dublin,...

Louise Kenny was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University College Cork in 2009, and Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool, in 2017, and she has won umpteen awards over the years, from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Enterprise Ireland, and Science Foundation Ireland. Other non-medical ac...

Fergus Shanahan, emeritus professor of medicine at University College Cork and foundation director of APC Microbiome Ireland, ‘the largest human microbiome research centre in the world’, is a clinician-scientist who has published over 600 papers in the areas of inflammatory bowel disease, gut immunology and the microbiome, written or edited 10 books, and received many awards. A former president of...

This podcast features one of Ireland’s most dynamic anaesthesiologists. Professor Ellen O’Sullivan , a consultant anaesthesiologist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, has a worldwide reputation in airway management and a substantial portfolio of cutting edge research. She was elected President of the Difficult Airway Society in November 2009 and, in 2016, she was appointed the Diffic...

This podcast is essential listening for anyone interested in the state of modern psychiatry. Professor Brendan Kelly, polymath, bibliophile, cinephile, music lover, and keen traveller, is one of Ireland’s most prolific medical authors and advocates for the public understanding of mental illness. His recent book,  In Search of Madness , is an elegant, concise and often witty history of mental...

In this episode,  Dr Chris Luke  is in conversation with  Professor Seamus O’Reilly , Consultant Medical Oncologist at Cork University Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine at University College Cork, Vice Clinical Lead of Cancer Trials Ireland, and member of the Executive Board and the Early Drugs Task Force of the Breast International Group, the National Research Ethics C...

Irish Medical Lives is a podcast from the Irish Medical Times that features conversations with the movers, shakers, and pioneers of Irish medicine in the 21st-century. In this episode, Dr Chris Luke talks to Professor Mary Horgan, Professor of Medicine at University College Cork, Consultant in Infectious Disease Medicine at Cork University Hospital, and President of the Royal College of Physicians...

In this podcast , Dr Chris Luke , an emergency physician by background, and columnist with the Irish Medical Times, discusses past, present and future developments and challenges in emergency healthcare in Ireland with  Professor Conor Deasy , Professor of Emergency Medicine at University College Cork, Director of Unscheduled Care at Cork University Hospital, clinical lead for the South Traum...