Kirkpatrick Award

The Kirkpatrick History of Medicine Award encourages and promotes the study of the history of medicine in Ireland.

Applications open for 2025 Award

Applications are now open for the 2025 Kirkpatrick History of Medicine Award. Presentations for the award will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 8 April 2025 in RCPI's 6 Kildare Street building. Presentations may be delivered in person or online.

How to apply

Applicants are asked to submit an abstract of their research and a curriculum vitae by email to heritagecentre@rcpi.ie. The abstract must not exceed 800 words in length. The curriculum vitae must not exceed two sides of A4.

Research must be original, unpublished and have been undertaken in the last 3 years. Research which has been submitted for publication will be considered, but details should be given of when and where it has been submitted, and if it has been accepted for publication.

The Award can only be awarded to an individual once.

Applications must be emailed to heritagecentre@rcpi.ie before 5pm on 7 March 2025

Shortlisting

Shortlisting will take place following the application closing date. Shortlisted applicants will be asked to give a 20 minute presentation at an event to be held on Tuesday 8 April 2025 at 6pm, presentations can be made in person or online.

The judging panel will decide the winner of the award who will receive €500. The winner will also be asked to submit a guest blog post on their research for publication on the RCPI Heritage Centre blog.

Any questions regarding the award can be sent to heritagecentre@rcpi.ie

Who was Dr Kirkpatrick?

Physician and historian Thomas Percy Claude Kirkpatrick (1869-1954), was Registrar of this College for over forty years from 1910 to his death in 1954. He devoted his considerable energies to preserving and developing the College’s library and heritage collections, and much of the strength of today's collections are as a result of his dedication. Kirkpatrick published numerous works on the history of medicine in Ireland and bequeathed his library and archives to the College.

Previous Winners

2022 - Bridget Keown "In the midst of the trouble area during rebellion" Gender and truama on the homefront of the Easter Rising.

No award beween 2019 and 2021

2018 - Triona Waters Remedying the ‘"growing evil": the curable and incurable patients of the Limerick District Lunatic Asylum, 1827-1887.

2017 - David Kilgannon '"Something for the mental defectives of the West": Establishing a centre for the intellectually disabled at Bahola, Co. Mayo.

2016 - Stephen Bance Polio in Ireland. Rehabilitation and re-intergration in the mid-twentieth century.

2015 - Robyn Atcheson The Irish poor law and medical relief for the poor in Belfast in the 1840s.

2014 - Aisling Veale "A class of her own" Negotiating religious and medical identities in Ireland and on the Missions, 1945-1960.

2013 - Dr Clara Cullen War work on the Home Front: The central Sphagnum Moss Depot of Ireland at the Royal College of Science for Ireland 1915-19.

2012 - Dr Anne Mac Lellan Victim or Vector? Tubercular Irish Nurses in England 1930-1960.

2011 - David Durnin War and Medicine: Irish Medical Involvement in the First World War.