Harriet Wheelock / Thursday 14 April 2011 Dr John Fleetwood’s Papers now available As part of the ongoing cataloguing project of the archive another new collection has been made available this month, the papers of Dr John Fleetwood. The collection list can be downloaded from the archive webpage, or the records can be searched using our online catalogue. Dr Fleetwood ran a general practice in Blackrock, County Dublin as well as specialising in gerontology (care of the elderly). He was actively involved in the founding of the Royal College of General Practitioners, was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and was involved in the palliative care and hospice movement, being appointed in 1961 to Our Lady's Hospice, Blackrock. The collection of papers left by Dr Fleetwood to the College contains a small number relating to his medical career, especially his work in gerontology. However, the majority of the papers held by the archive relate to historical and literary work. In 1951 Fleetwood published The History of Medicine in Ireland, one of the classic works in the field, followed in 1988 by The Irish Body Snatchers. He also wrote a number of articles and talks on a range of history of medicine topics from Irish spas to an Irish Field Ambulance in the Franco-Prussian War. The research notes and early drafts for over 20 of these articles and talks are in the archive, as are copies of many of his short history of medicine articles for Hospital Doctors of Ireland and Medicine Weekly. Outside of the history of medicine Dr Fleetwood was perhaps best known for his regular contributions to the popular RTE programme Sunday Miscellany, scripts for many of his contributions are included in the archive.