Fellows Friday - Dr Barry Bresnihan and Prof Derek O'Keeffe
It's Fellows Friday again, and this week our Fellow from the past is Dr Barry Bresnihan, who was not only a talented physician but also excelled on the rugby field.
Born in Dublin in 1944, Finbarr Patrick ‘Barry’ Bresnihan was educated at the Jesuit Gonzaga College before qualifying in medicine from University College Dublin. Having decided to specialise in rheumatology, he worked and studied in London and Texas, before returning to Dublin and an appointment at St Vincent’s Hospital. There he set up a series of specialist clinics, multidisciplinary teams and linked these with a laboratory at University College Dublin.
His lifetime achievements in rheumatology were recognised by University College Dublin through the creation of a special chair in rheumatology. Internationally, he was awarded the title ‘master’ by the American College of Rheumatology. He also held visiting professorships at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the University of Geneva. In 2009, he was given a lifetime achievement award by the Irish Society for Rheumatology.
Although his medical achievements are impressive enough, he was even more famous on the rugby field. He was capped 25 times for Ireland between 1966 and 1971, scoring six tried for his country. He played club rugby for UCD, Lansdowne, London Irish and the Dallas Harlequins. He also played for Munster, the British and Irish Lions and the Barbarians invitational team.
Our current Fellow is Prof Derek O’Keeffe who became a Fellow back in October 2019. Prof O’Keeffe’s career is one of a polymath, he holds dual first class honours degrees in Engineering (Gold Letter) and Medicine (Gold Medal) as well as a Masters and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Limerick and NUIG.
He was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard, a Green Templeton Scholar at Oxford and is a graduate of the Endocrinology Clinical Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, USA. As well as multiple academic publications, he holds biomedical patents and several international research prizes. Prof O’Keeffe has worked with NASA and is an SFI funded investigator. He was awarded The Outstanding Young Person of the World by JCI and is a black belt taekwondo instructor, qualified pilot and advanced scuba diver. He works as a Consultant Endocrinologist at University Hospital Galway (UHG) and is the Professor of Medical Device Technology at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). Prof O’Keeffe regularly contributes his expertise to articles in the Irish press and has been featured in publications such as The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and the Irish Medical Times.
In October 2019 Prof O’Keeffe was awarded the inaugural St Luke’s Medal from RCPI and delivered the accompanying St Luke’s Lecture at the College’s Annual Symposium, his lecture was titled, “The Future of Medicine is the Patient."