Dr Diarmuid O’Shea is a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine at St Vincent’s

University Hospital in Dublin, former President of the Irish Gerontological Society and

National Clinical Programme Lead for the Older Persons Programme of the HSE and RCPI

and, presently, the 143 rd President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

Dr O’Shea’s clinical and research interests include syncope, drug metabolism, and dementia,

and his organisational initiatives have been largely directed towards the enhancement of

patient care and of medical training in Ireland.

In this podcast episode, Dr O’Shea reflects on a very happy childhood in South Dublin, in a

family of high-achievers, including his father, Jerome, the famous footballer from

Caherciveen with three All Ireland medals for Kerry, and two ‘celebrity’ brothers,

(Endocrinologist, Professor) Donal and Conor (of international rugby fame), and he offers

some amusing insights into life-long sibling rivalry!

Diarmuid also recalls his enjoyable undergraduate years in UCD, and his training in the

Mater, St. Vincent’s, St Columcille’s, and Wexford Hospitals, before he moved to Nashville

in Tennessee, and then Newcastle, in Tyneside.

Since 2000, Dr O’Shea has worked at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, and he

observes that it was his exceptional good fortune to have worked with two giants of geriatric

medicine in Ireland, Dr Morgan Crowe and the late Dr Denis Keating, who gave him

invaluable guidance and career advice. We also hear why he is careful not to bump into his

brother, Donal, in a lift!

Diarmuid enthuses about his long-term passions, especially medical education, and he

touches on his work as a past-Chair of the Irish Committee of Higher Medical Training, and

Vice-President of Education and Professional Development at the College, along with the

successful RCPI Masterclass Series (which he established), and he offers a tour d’horizon in

terms of the College’s work to improve patient care, the quality of medical practice and the

health of the population as a whole.

In his role as the President of the RCPI, Dr O’Shea acknowledges and identifies many of the

current challenges across the Irish health and social care system, and he explains why he

firmly believes that ‘collaboration, recruitment and retention, as well as innovation and the

ability to adapt, will be central to improving the environments in which we (all) work and

train, and to delivering fit-for-purpose 21st Century training and medical care’.

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