The AUDGPI Festschrift was held in RCSI in honour of Professor William Shannon, Department of Family Medicine and General Practice, who will retire shortly.

Among those speaking at the event included Phillip Evans, University of Edinburgh, Professor John Spencer, University of Newcastle, Professor Paul Finnucane, University of Limerick and Fionan O’Cuinneagain, CEO, ICGP. Professor Tom O’Dowd from Trinity College Dublin finished with the aptly named speech ‘It’s a long, long way from Clare to here'. 

A native of Clare, Professor Shannon qualified from the Medical School, University College Cork in 1965. Having completed his general practice/registrar year at the Department of General Practice, University of Edinburgh in 1969, he then set up in General Practice in Cork until 1987. During that time he became a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and in 1980 became a Fellow.

He was appointed an MRCGP Examiner from 1989 to 1995. He was also appointed Programme Director of the Cork Vocational Training Scheme for General Practice from 1976 to 1989, based at University College, Cork. In 1987 he moved to Dublin having been appointed Professor of General Practice at the Medical School, RCSI. In 1991 he established the Vocational Training Scheme for General Practice at RCSI. From 1998 to 2002 he was appointed Vice-Dean for Medical Education. 

His special teaching interests include medical ethics, communication skills, community-based medical education and graduate entry to medicine. He has a number of research interests which include clinical audit in general practice, for which he was awarded an MD from NUI in 1983. More recent interests have included the health of homeless people in inner-city Dublin.