P. Ronan O'Connell

PRCSI (2020-2022)

Professor P. Ronan O’Connell graduated from TCD in 1979. He trained in Dublin and Cork and undertook fellowship training in colon and rectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA. He held the roles of consultant/senior lecturer at the London Hospital and consultant surgeon at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. In 2002, he became a Newman Clinical Professor in UCD and in 2007 moved to St Vincent’s University Hospital as Professor of Surgery and Head of Subject in UCD. 

He was elected to RCSI Council in 2008 and served on multiple committees and working groups including chair of the Audit Committee; Irish Surgical Postgraduate Training Committee (ISPTC); and the Court of Examiners. 

Professor O’Connell was President of the European Surgical Association (2021-2022) and is a former Secretary (2009-2011) and President of the European Society of Coloproctology (2013-14). He is an elected member of the International Surgical Group, the Society of Pelvic Surgeons and the James IV Surgical Association.

Professor O’Connell has published widely in the areas of inflammatory bowel disease, pelvic floor physiology and colorectal cancer, authoring more than 300 publications. He was editor of the British Journal of Surgery (1999-2006) and editor of Bailey & Love’s Short Practice of Surgery 25th – 28th editions. He was the RCS England Hunterian Orator for 2019-2020.

Professor O’Connell has been awarded Honorary Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, the Hungarian Society of Surgery and the Japanese Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

Above: Portrait of Ronan O’Connell by Nicholas Benedict Robinson (b.1974).