Honorary Fellowships were awarded to Professor Michael Molloy, Dr John Daly and Dr John Mannick at an historic meeting of RCSI held in Cork this weekend.

The meeting was held in University College Cork (UCC) and Mercy University Hospital from 20-21 April.

The meeting in Cork coincided with the 150th anniversary of the Mercy University Hospital and highlighted the strong link that exists between RCSI and Cork including its teaching hospitals, staff and students.

Former Irish rugby international and founding Dean of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine at RCSI, Professor Molloy is currently a Consultant Physician/Rheumatologist at Cork University Hospital and lecturer in the Department of Medicine in UCC. He holds 27 caps for Ireland from 1966-1976 and was captain of Connaught from 1963-1974.

He also played for the Barbarians from 1969-74, held the post of Medical Advisor to the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1979-2005 and is currently Chief Medical Advisor to the International Rugby Board (IRB). In his citation, Mr Michael Kerin praised the way Professor Molloy has been “instrumental in delivering and developing a programme of clinical care, research and education in rheumatology and clinical medicine”.

Dr John M. Daly is an internationally renowned oncologic surgeon, author and researcher. In 2002 he became Dean of Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia. Dr Daly has received numerous honors and awards for teaching, research and practice, including the Elliot Hochstein Medical Student Teaching Award of Cornell University (1995). A prolific researcher and author, Dr Daly has 368 publications to his credit.

In his citation, Professor Paul Redmond said: “Dr Daly is undoubtedly one of the greatest surgeons the US has ever known and an iconic surgeon of the 20th and 21st centuries. His awards and distinctions are vast; he is a member of over 30 surgical societies, he has served well in excess of 100 committees and he has been the recipient of approximately €8 million in research funding – a truly magnificent achievement.

Dr John Mannick is a Moseley Distinguished Professor of Surgery Harvard Medical School and Surgeon in Chief Emeritus at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston, Massachusets. He became a national and international leader in Vascular Surgery and was President of The Society for Vascular Surgery and The International Society of Cardiovascular Surgery. An outstanding leader in academic surgery, he was President of the American Surgical Association and the Society of Surgical Chairmen.

He has served on the Editorial Board of numerous journals, including the British Journal of Surgery and the Journal of Vascular Surgery. He has, over a 30 year period, made a major contribution to unravelling the complexities of the immune response to burns and trauma. In his citation Professor Frank Keane said “Dr Mannick is a leader in surgery and science. Irish surgery is indeed indebted to him, not just for his support of young trainees in his laboratory, but also for the great kindness and hospitality he showed them.”