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Ronan continues a family tradition 02.09.08
by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent
RONAN McLaughlin will continue a family tradition
when he starts medical school in Belfast later this
month. The former Scoil Mhuire students, who scored
an incredible 5As and 2Bs in the Leaving Cert, will
study medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast, some
60 years after his grandfather Dr Denis McLaughlin
studied medicine at University College Dublin.
“My grandfather was a great influence on me,” Ronan
said. “We always discussed medicine at the dinner
table and he painted a lovely picture of medicine
and clearly enjoyed it so much that I was anxious to
follow in his footsteps.” |
Dr Denis McLaughlin is,
of course, well known to generations of people from
Buncrana and all over Inishowen who he treated at
his surgery in Castle Avenue. He graduated from UCD
in 1949, in the same class as the former Minister
and President of Ireland Dr Patrick Hillery and his
wife Maeve.
He is currently the longest serving general
practitioner in the country, |
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and, as Ronan explains,
it was all very different when he studied medicine.
“There was no points system at the time, and he got
a scholarship to UCD when someone else dropped out,”
he said. “There was no on the job training as such
and he went straight from college into a fever
hospital in Derry before setting up his surgery here
in Buncrana a year or so later.”
Ronan will spend one year in pre-med in Queens,
followed by three years studying medicine proper,
one year in a hospital after which he will graduate.
Then, he will spend a further two years in a
hospital setting before finally qualifying.
“I’d like to work in geriatric medicine,” Ronan
said. “With an ageing population there will be lots
of opportunities arising in that area. I’m also
interested in cardiology, and hope to specialise in
those areas.”
“I’m sad to be leaving Scoil Mhuire where we had
some great craic and banter,” Ronan concluded. “I’ll
miss my classmates and the teachers. We had some
great craic here and I loved every minute of it.” |
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