| Medicine Our honored physicians
have used their skills to help the homeless, cure children of disease,
and bring the benefits of modern medicine to all people. These individuals
have set the new standard for excellence in caring for others.
 Dr. Kevin
Cahill
Dr. Kevin Cahill, a famous tropical-medicine specialist, is president
of the Center for International Health and Cooperation, in New York City.
He is also president of the American Irish Historical Society, where together
with his son Chris, who is the editor of The Recorder, the renowned journal
of the society, he promotes the very best of Irish culture in New York
City.
Founded in 1897 in Boston by 50 American Irishmen determined to combat
nativist prejudices and distortions, the Society later moved to New York,
where in 1940 it acquired its present Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue.
Among the founding members was Theodore Roosevelt, who descended through
his mother from the Barnwells of Dublin. Early members included the tenor
John McCormack, famed orator Bourke Cockran, and the Fenian John Devoy.
A chief aim of the Society was adopted as a motto for its seal: That the
World May Know.
A world-traveler who worked in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa,
Dr. Cahill later became known for his relief work in war zones like Somalia,
Sudan, and Nicaragua. Today he offers his expertise on humanitarian efforts
to the United Nations and the NYPD where he is the Chief Medical Advisor
for Counterterrorism. Dr. Cahill has penned numerous books including To
Bear Witness: A Journey of Healing and Solidarity (2005), which offers
a rich selection of his writings. – Patricia Harty
 Dr. John
Kennedy
For one week every year, for the past three, Dr. John Kennedy travels
to a rural area near Santo Domingo to perform 15 to 20 orthopedic surgeries
for free for those patients with the greatest need.
Kennedy, who has to this point funded the trips himself, travels with
a team that started with three specialists and has now doubled in size.
“This is a very personal trip for all involved and as a doctor I’m
honored to be part of this truly meaningful, collaborate effort,”
Kennedy told Alan Krawitz of the New York Daily News.
Kennedy, who was born and raised in Dublin, credits one of his patients,
a woman from the Dominican Republic, with alerting him to the need for
orthopedic surgeries in her country.
The current Director of the Running Clinic in the Gait Laboratory at the
Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, Kennedy is actively involved in
the treatment of team members from the New York Giants, the New York Red
Bulls, Old Blue Rugby and several high school teams.
He credits his interest in orthopedics to his involvement in sports. As
an athlete, who “broke plenty of bones playing rugby” he became
fascinated in how they healed.
In 1995 Kennedy immigrated to Boston to begin a fellowship in orthopedic
sports and orthopedic joint reconstruction at Saint Elizabeth’s
Medical Center. During this time he was also involved in the Children’s
Hospital and the Andres Laboratory of the Harvard Medical School where
he spent time investigating new composites in bone regeneration, which
he presented as a thesis for his master’s in surgery.
2001 found Dr. Kennedy in New York City where he worked in the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center before moving on to the Hospital for Special
Surgery. John travels back home to Ireland every two or three months to
visit his parents. He is involved in the Irish-American Orthopedic Organization,
the Irish Chamber of Commerce in the U.S., and other charitable Irish
organizations.-Bridget English
 Dr. John P.
Donoghue
As the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and chair of the Department of
Neuroscience at Brown University, John P. Donoghue has a profound understanding
of human brain function. But it is his work as the director of the University’s
Brain Science Program that has resulted in significant breakthroughs in
how the brain turns thought into action.
John Donoghue’s company, Cyberkinetics, has developed an implant
called BrainGate that allows paralyzed patients to control a computer
using only thoughts. The array of 96 hair-thin electrodes is pressed into
the surface of a patient’s brain just above a region of the sensory
motor cortex, which controls arm and hand movement. The implant proved
successful in trials with patient Matthew Nagle (pictured right), the
first person to have controlled an artificial limb using a device implanted
into his brain.
In 1998 John was the driving force behind the creation of the Brain Science
Program that brings together faculty members from 11 different departments
to advance the understanding of brain function, human behavior and nervous
systems. This program has led to major discoveries in human vision, communication
and computation used by the brain.
John received his B.S. from Boston University, M.S in anatomy from University
of Vermont and a doctorate degree in neuroscience from Brown University.
In 1992 he became the founding chair of the department of neuroscience.
Donoghue has served on review boards for the National Institutes of Health,
the National Science Foundation and NASA. He has received many honors
including the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National
Institute of Health.
A second-generation Irish-American, John Donoghue’s grandfather,
Stephen Sidney Donoghue, came to America from the small town of Kilgarvan
in County Kerry, Ireland in the early 20th century. Settling in Boston,
Stephen began working in brick construction and soon began a company that
repaired and constructed furnaces.
Dr. Donoghue has been back to visit Kilgarvan with his wife and kids.
John was surprised to discover that a few of the locals still remembered
his family though none of his relatives remain in the town.-Bridget English
 Tom Judge
Maine was the last state in the union to have a dedicated medical rescue
helicopter service, even though it is precisely the kind of place that
most needs one.
In 1998, LifeFlight of Maine was launched through the efforts of an
Irish-American fiddle-playing ambulance volunteer, Tom Judge, who now
serves as executive director of the service and the separate foundation
that raises funds to support it.
“We’re interested in improving the chain of survival in Maine,
and we’re doing it,” said Judge. “Last June alone, 14
people arrived in hospitals for critical care who wouldn’t have
made it in an ambulance.”
Two crews operate out of Bangor and Lewiston and service the north and
south regions of the heavily forested, rural state.
“We’re not interested in heroes, but in everyday excellent
performance by everyone who works for the organization,” said Judge,
adding the staff is LifeFlight’s strongest asset.
The path to Judge’s career was neither straight nor predictable.
He majored in literature but after college he moved to coastal St. George,
Maine, where he taught a little school, then turned to carpentry, and
soon owned a construction company. He also volunteered at the local ambulance
service and in 1991 moved to Bangor to work part-time as a paramedic.
It was there that he met and married Susan Groce, a fiddle-playing artist
and professor at the state university.
Judge also plays the fiddle, squeezing the music in around his demanding
job and his volunteer work. He grew up in Chicago listening to his grandparents
play. His mother’s family is from Cork and his father’s from
Donegal and Mayo. And his sister, “a serious musician,” plays
with the symphony in Cincinnati.
Of his first trip to Ireland, a few years ago, Judge recalls: “I
got off the plane and had a visceral reaction. I knew this place.”
A two week vacation led to a one-year sabbatical for Susan in Ireland
and a job at the National Ambulance Training School for Tom, who has been
back and forth ever since, doing trauma training in Belfast and Dublin
and participating in the Christmas lifeboat swims in Ardmore to raise
money for sea rescue services
While he mostly lives in Bangor now, Tom also keeps his home in St. George.
When he’s there, he’s still on call for the ambulance service.
– Nancy Griffin
 Dr. James
O’Connell
Dr. James Joseph O’Connell’s accomplishments cannot be adequately
covered in just a few words.
He is a brilliant physician, tireless philanthropist and conscientious
advocate for the underprivileged.
Dr. O’Connell graduated Salutatorian in 1970 from the University
of Notre Dame, and earned an MA in Theology at St. John’s College,
Cambridge, England in 1972. He then went on to study medicine at Harvard
Medical School.
Upon completion of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital,
he became one of the founding physicians of the Boston Health Care for
the Homeless Program (BHCHP). Dr. O’Connell recalls that when he
initially got involved with the BHCHP, he never thought it was going to
be his career. He says at that time he was aided by his sense of “sixties
social conscience” and thought of it as a temporary position. It
has now blossomed into a $20 million a year program with equivalent programs
popping up in major U.S. cities around the country. Besides being the
President of the BHCHP, Dr. O’Connell is also a practicing physician
at one of the program’s many clinics throughout Boston.
Dr. O’Connell has established respite care programs for the homeless
and served as the National Program Director for the Homeless Families
Program which is instrumental in placing families from shelters and the
streets into permanent housing.
Dr. O’Connell has also taught medicine at Harvard Medical School,
Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University. He holds seats on
many health care boards and is a prolific publisher of books and journal
articles. Dr. O’Connell is the recipient of numerous awards and
honors for his intellect and service to the community – most recently
the Champion in Health Care Award in 2005.
Dr. O’Connell’s father’s family hails from the Dingle
Bay in County Kerry while his mother’s family comes from Cork. Both
sides immigrated to Newport, RI, after the great potato famine and it
is in that city that Dr. O’Connell was born, raised and “still
thinks of as home.” – Liam Moriarty
 Dr. Garrett
O’Connor
Dr. Garrett O’Connor is the medical director of the Professional
Recovery Program at the Betty Ford Center, the nation’s leading
addiction treatment hospital.
Born in Ireland, O’Connor moved to the U.S. in 1960. He was trained
at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and subsequently served
there as Associate Professor of Psychiatry, as well as director of the
Psychiatric Emergency Service and the Johns Hopkins Drug Abuse Center.
He and his wife (noted actress Fionnula Flanagan) moved to California
30 years ago.
A nationally-recognized expert in the clinical assessment of fitness-for-duty
for persons occupying safety-sensitive positions (such as pilots, medical
doctors and lawyers) Dr. O’Connor is an Associate Clinical Professor
of Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), as
well as Consulting Psychiatrist for the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA). He is a former national board member of the American Society of
Addiction Medicine and a past president of the California Society of Addiction
Medicine.
The non-profit Betty Ford Center has served more than 60,000 patients
and family members since it was founded by former First Lady Betty Ford
and Ambassador Leonard Firestone in 1982. The Professional Recovery Program
(PRP) is designed for individuals who need structured, and often longer-term
primary care, for their addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs. –
Patricia Harty
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