RCSI Heritage Collections

This evening RCSI welcomes very special guest Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, Former President of Ireland & Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to receive the Emily Winifred Dickson Award. The Award was established in honour of Emily Winifred Dickson who was the first female Fellow (1893) of the surgical Royal Colleges in Britain and Ireland. This distinguished award recognises women who have made an outstanding contribution to their field. In honour of her visit, we take a look back at two previous occasions in which Mary Robinson has visited the College. The first was in 1991 when Mary Robinson, as President of Ireland, officially opened the new RCSI Mercer Library and Mercer Medical Centre. This site was formerly Mercer's Hospital and had closed its doors in 1983 after almost 250 years of medical service. In 1984, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland purchased the building and decided to rebuild is so tha...

Today is a day of celebration in South Africa; celebrating the life, trials, hardships and unwavering spirit of freedom embodied in the man that was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Nelson Mandela and Tom PJ Hennessy, PRCSI 1994-1996. in Capetown at the conferring of the RCSI Honorary Fellowship on Mandela  On 27th March 1996 RCSI awarded Nelson Mandela it's highest honour, the Honorary Fellowship.  There is no point in trying to paraphrase the citation given by the RCSI Vice-President, Mr. Peter McClean, as it would be an injustice to the person, achievements and spirit of Mandela. So it is reproduced in full below.  Citation  read by Mr Peter McLean, Vice-President RCSI  on the occasion of the Conferring of the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of  Surgeons in Ireland on President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,  in Capetown, South Africa  on Wednesday 27th March 1996 Mr President, It is indeed a ...

Fully aware that the moment he died [John] Hunter would come for his body, [Charles] Byrne had concocted a plan designed to thwart him. As his friends leaned forward to hear his dying words, Byrne made them vow to seal his body in a lead coffin, ship it to the middle of the English Channel and plunge it to the bottom of the sea, far from the reach of even the most resourceful anatomist.  - The Knife Man ; Wendy Moore pg.313 Or so Charles Byrne thought!! Byrne was an Irish giant who had arrived in London in April 1782 to earn a living from showcasing his remarkable height of seven foot eight inches. But in doing so he caught the eye of the most renowned surgeon and anatomist of the time, John Hunter .  John Hunter (1728- 1793) painted by Sir Joshua Reynold in 1786. Note the long shin and foot bones in the top right corner! John Hunter was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in and around 13 February 1728, his exact birth date isn't known. Hunter did...