Fellows Friday: Sir Henry Marsh and Dr Michael Boyle

For Fellows Friday each week we will be delving into the archives and spotlighting one of our Fellows from the past who helped to blaze a trail. We’ll also be looking to the future of medicine and profiling some of our current inspirational Fellows. This week our Fellows Friday turns the spotlight on to the specialty of Paediatrics.

Celebrating our past

For this week’s Fellows Friday, we have decided to profile Sir Henry Marsh, one of the leading figures in Paediatrics in Ireland.

Born in Co Galway in 1790, Henry Marsh studied medicine in Trinity College, Dublin. He had intended to become a surgeon, but while dissecting in the anatomy room he managed to cut his right index finger so badly it had to be amputated to prevent gangrene. Unable to continue as a surgeon, he decided to pursue a career in medicine.

Marsh was one of three physicians who founded a hospital for sick children in 1821. Originally based in Marsh’s own residence on Molesworth Street, the hospital would become the National Children’s Hospital. One of the first trainees at the hospital was Charles West, who went on to found Great Ormond Street. A popular and esteemed clinical lecturer, Marsh eventually gave up teaching to focus on his hospital practice. He carried out detailed research and his eminence was attributed by his contemporaries to “unyielding determination, invincible energy, profound knowledge and wide experience”.

In 1837 he was appointed Physician to Queen Victoria in Ireland and two years later was knighted for his services to medicine. Marsh died in 1860 and following his death £800 was raised by his friends and colleagues for a memorial statue. John Foley, Ireland’s most famous sculptor, was commissioned and the marble statue still stands in 6 Kildare Street, with Marsh’s right index finger restored!

Looking forward

For this week’s Fellows Friday we are delighted to profile Dr Michael Boyle, who became a Fellow of the College in 2019.

Dr Boyle graduated from University College Dublin in 2004 and after a brief sojourn as a surgical trainee completed his training in Paediatrics in Ireland gaining membership of the RCPI (Paediatrics) in 2008. During Higher Specialty Training he chose to subspecialise as a Neonatologist and to this end commenced a PhD project towards the end of training in neonatal neuroimaging which was awarded by RCSI in 2016.

He moved to Cambridge for clinical fellowships in Surgical Neonates and Neonatal Transport. Whilst there he was appointed to a Chief Resident position in Addenbrooke’s Hospital and completed a certificate in Management and Leadership from the University of Cambridge before working as a consultant. After three years in the UK he returned to Ireland and to the Rotunda Hospital in 2016.

Since returning he has continued to be involved in education and college activities through his role as co-chair of the Neonatal Clinical Advisory Group and has been clinical lead in redeveloping the curriculum for BST, developed a procedural skills course for BST and in 2019 become one of the National Specialty Directors for HST in Paediatrics.