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Showing posts from May, 2015

A Wilde Life

Plaque at 1 Merrion Square (Photo by Paul Murphy, Deputy Librarian RCSI) Sir William Wilde LRCSI, FRCSI was born in Castlerea, County Roscommon towards the end of spring 1815. To mark this bicentenary the County Librarian organised an event in Castlerea over the weekend of April  16 th -18 th.  William's father Thomas was a physician and the Wilde family home fronted onto Barrack Street. There was a poignant visit to the nearby Church of Ireland cemetery to the grave of Dr Thomas Wilde which had been identified and its fractured gravestone recently restored. William accompanied his father visiting patients throughout the countryside. From this came many of his life-long interests: country lore , healing charms, social conditions and the circumstances of people's lives. William Wilde was destined for great things. His father had steered him towards Surgery and having obtained his medical education at RCSI he trained in Vienna under the leading eye and ear surgeons o

Get Your Gloves On!

RCSI British Isles Intervarsity Boxing Team This photo landed in the RCSI Heritage Collections last week and what an intriguing photo it is! Luckily there are some handwritten notes on the back that tell us the following 'British Isles intervaristy championships in London 10th January 1950. Centre - Tommy Burns Trainer (a Golden Gloves Champion) Professor A.K.Henry 5th Rt. Top Row (who started the Boxing Club)' Arnold Kirkpatrick Henry was an astonishing man with a varied and coloured medical career. He was born in 1886 and received his early eduction in Trent, England. He then came to study in Trinity College Dublin graduating in 1911 with a M.B, B.Ch, and B.A.O. He became a Fellow f RCSI in 1914 and soon afterwards went off to play his part in the First World War. Henry, with his surgeon wife acting as his assistant, served as a surgeon with the Serbian army. When Germany overran Serbia in 1916 the Henry's escaped and fled back to Britain. For his distinguish