Peter Barry FRCS, who has died unexpectedly after a brief illness aged 67 years, was one of the foremost eye surgeons of his generation. As well as being an international ambassador for Irish ophthalmology, he was the national clinical lead for ophthalmology, leading wide-reaching reforms in hospital and community delivery of eye healthcare.
He pioneered major surgical advances in Irish and European ophthalmology: modern cataract surgery and primary vitrectomy for retinal detachment repair in the early 1980s.
Having wide-ranging international impact, he was a cofounder and recently president of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). In addition to superb surgical outcomes in his own patients, thousands more had safer cataract surgery when he chaired the first international clinical trial proving the benefit of prophylactic antibiotics. This landmark study has now been accepted worldwide as setting the clinical standard of care in dramatically reducing post-operative infection, the most devastating blinding complication of cataract surgery.
Peter James Barry was born in Dublin and educated at Gonzaga College. Being academic, gregarious and quietly religious, he briefly started Jesuit studies but quickly switched to UCD medical school. Clinical training in ophthalmology began at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, with completion of the majority of his clinical residency at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.
Absolute focus
Fellowship training followed in London and the US in vitreoretinal surgery, then in its infancy, but Moorfields quickly established itself as an international leader under Peter’s mentors, David McLeod, Peter Leaver and Robert Cooling. Appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon in 1984 to his alma mater, the Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, he initiated vitreoretinal surgery and maintained a continuous separate retinal detachment rota.
He had a joint appointment with St Vincent’s University Hospital, where he quickly established a dedicated registrar cataract training module.
As ESCRS president, he established three themes: youth, education and research which reflected his lifetime clinical focus. He took an immense interest in fostering the careers of many future ophthalmologists. Combining the attributes of high clinical and surgical acumen, work ethic and attention to detail, his clinics and operating lists were both intense and occasionally dramatic. Mentoring by example, he expected the same absolute focus. Patient empathy was his main driving force and he used his surgical skill, persuasiveness and humility to achieve the best possible clinical outcomes.
Charismatic and
debonair
Peter Barry’s Sunday routine began with a ward round at the Eye and Ear Hospital accompanied by his daughter Lisa, followed by ice cream and reading at Mass at St Vincent’s.
Charismatic and debonair, he was great company in social situations and an eloquent protagonist in formal meetings. He was just as happy delivering the Ridley Medal Lecture as sharing clinical woes with a colleague.
He was a devoted family man and he is survived by his wife Carmel and four adult children, David, Stephen, Simon and Lisa.