Page 157 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 157
A CAREER IN NEUROLOGY
I entered irst year in Gonzaga in September 1979 one of only two boys admited to the secondary
school that year, the rest of the class having come through Prep 4. My mother was adamant that
I be educated by Jesuits, my grand-uncle having been a teacher in Clongowes. There was certainly
a profoundly bourgeois ethic pervading middle class educaion in south Dublin in those days, but
I’ll admit that I truly loved my ime at the school. I know that I grew in many ways intellectually,
socially and emoionally.
It would be invidious to pick out teachers for special praise. Instead, I add a list in no
paricular order of things that stand out in my memory:
– the green oxidized copper of the chapel roof; the small bullet-sized hole in the plate glass
window outside the staf-room that Mr O’Dea used to dispose of his cigaretes;
– playing violin in Gerry Murphy’s Opera ‘A Fly in the Ointment’ (the only name I can
remember!); the long lunch room beside the Hall; Brother Barry and his Tardis oice!
– rugby training in deep mid-winter: ‘Mother Mo Chroi with the legs!!’;
– running in bare feet across the fallen acorns on sports day on the front lawn;
– playing an elf in Mick Bevan’s producion of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
– Midnight Mass at Christmas.
I made friends in my irst year that I sill see regularly, Cormac Larkin, William Dundon, Eoin
O’Mahony and Gavin O’Sullivan.
On leaving Gonzaga, I began the study of Medicine in UCD, graduated in 1991 and interned
at St Vincent’s hospital. By 1995 I had decided to study neurology and pursued a post-Doctoral
Degree in Brain Imaging at RCSI. In that same year I married Sinead and 1998 saw the birth
of Jack, the irst of my four sons. Twelve days ater he was born, I emigrated to Boston to do
further training in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Sinead followed me out there and we
lived in Brookline on the outskirts of Boston city for ive years. I became the chief resident in
the neurology programme in 2000 and subsequently completed two fellowships in Epilepsy and
Cogniion. Cormac and Eoin were born there before we returned to Ireland in 2003. In 2005 I was
appointed to the consultant staf at St James’s Hospital. My last boy, Milo, was born in 2006. Most
recently I have taken up a half-ime post with the HSE as a naional clinical lead in epilepsy care to
try and improve and standardise care around the country. My main professional interests are in
improving health care delivery in the areas of epilepsy and degeneraive brain diseases. My free
ime is limited by work and bringing up four boys, but I did take up running in my 40s and will be
running my third Dublin Marathon for my epilepsy charity ERI (www.epilepsyresearchireland.org).
Please join us if you relish the challenge!
Colin Doherty MD
Class of 1985
I entered irst year in Gonzaga in September 1979 one of only two boys admited to the secondary
school that year, the rest of the class having come through Prep 4. My mother was adamant that
I be educated by Jesuits, my grand-uncle having been a teacher in Clongowes. There was certainly
a profoundly bourgeois ethic pervading middle class educaion in south Dublin in those days, but
I’ll admit that I truly loved my ime at the school. I know that I grew in many ways intellectually,
socially and emoionally.
It would be invidious to pick out teachers for special praise. Instead, I add a list in no
paricular order of things that stand out in my memory:
– the green oxidized copper of the chapel roof; the small bullet-sized hole in the plate glass
window outside the staf-room that Mr O’Dea used to dispose of his cigaretes;
– playing violin in Gerry Murphy’s Opera ‘A Fly in the Ointment’ (the only name I can
remember!); the long lunch room beside the Hall; Brother Barry and his Tardis oice!
– rugby training in deep mid-winter: ‘Mother Mo Chroi with the legs!!’;
– running in bare feet across the fallen acorns on sports day on the front lawn;
– playing an elf in Mick Bevan’s producion of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
– Midnight Mass at Christmas.
I made friends in my irst year that I sill see regularly, Cormac Larkin, William Dundon, Eoin
O’Mahony and Gavin O’Sullivan.
On leaving Gonzaga, I began the study of Medicine in UCD, graduated in 1991 and interned
at St Vincent’s hospital. By 1995 I had decided to study neurology and pursued a post-Doctoral
Degree in Brain Imaging at RCSI. In that same year I married Sinead and 1998 saw the birth
of Jack, the irst of my four sons. Twelve days ater he was born, I emigrated to Boston to do
further training in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Sinead followed me out there and we
lived in Brookline on the outskirts of Boston city for ive years. I became the chief resident in
the neurology programme in 2000 and subsequently completed two fellowships in Epilepsy and
Cogniion. Cormac and Eoin were born there before we returned to Ireland in 2003. In 2005 I was
appointed to the consultant staf at St James’s Hospital. My last boy, Milo, was born in 2006. Most
recently I have taken up a half-ime post with the HSE as a naional clinical lead in epilepsy care to
try and improve and standardise care around the country. My main professional interests are in
improving health care delivery in the areas of epilepsy and degeneraive brain diseases. My free
ime is limited by work and bringing up four boys, but I did take up running in my 40s and will be
running my third Dublin Marathon for my epilepsy charity ERI (www.epilepsyresearchireland.org).
Please join us if you relish the challenge!
Colin Doherty MD
Class of 1985
