Lifford doctor Anne Kilgallen has been acknowledged for her contribution to healthcare in a new photographic portrait collection at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
Dr Kilgallen, a retired Public Health specialist and former Chief Executive of Northern Ireland’s Western Health and Social Care Trust, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland – an internationally recognised benchmark of professional excellence in medicine.
Until 1924, Fellowship was an honour reserved for male doctors. That changed in November 1924 when Dr Mary Hearn, a gynaecologist at the Victoria Hospital for Women & Children in Cork, was sworn in as the first female Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI).
The photographic exhibition, unveiled during the RCPI Annual Conference today, acknowledges the immense contribution of women to medicine.
Dr Diarmuid O’Shea, President of RCPI with Dr Anne Kilgallen
Dr Kilgallen describes herself as a beneficiary of free post-primary education introduced in the 1960s, and by 1985 her Medicine class in University College Dublin was close to 50-50 men and women. She pursued a Masters in Public Health Medicine and in the late 2000s became Medical Director for the Western Health and Social Care Trust, and eventually its Chief Executive.
She is an advocate for a strong healthcare system that supports both doctors and the communities they care for.
The photographic portraits were created by Dublin-based photographer, Pauline Rowan in collaboration with the Fellows.
Dr Alida F P. Talento, photographer Pauline Rowan (behind), Prof Moira O’Brien and Dr Anne Kilgallen
Six Fellows in total join pioneers like Dr Kathleen Lynn, Professor Mary Horgan (CMO) and Laura Brennan (health advocate and HPV campaigner) on the walls of RCPI on Kildare Street.
Dr Diarmuid O’Shea, President of RCPI explains that a change to the college bylaws just over 100 years ago, made Fellowship available to all Members of the college “irrespective of sex”.
“Fellowship is an internationally recognised benchmark of professional excellence in medicine and the highest honour the college can award,” Dr Diarmuid O’Shea said.