Fiona Bradley's contribution to Irish medicine, although cut short by her untimely death last Monday less than 20 years after she graduated, was immense. As one of the Republic's best medical educators and foremost primarycare researchers, she helped shape an entire generation of doctors and others in the caring profession.
Cum Scientiae Caritas, the motto of the Royal College of General Practitioners (of which she gained membership in 1988), applied equally well to Fiona's professional life. The science was evident in her rigorous approach to medical research.
Her patients, whether in Ballymun and Dolphin's Barn in Dublin or London's East End, will remember her for her kindness and charity. And both science and charity came together in one of her famous catch phrases - inevitably offered when a medical research proposal was being considered - "Will it work in Ballymun?".
It was here that she set up her own practice, quickly building a list of patients who appreciated her different approach to family medicine. The socially-deprived recognised a kindred spirit, someone for whom a medical degree was not a barrier but merely an instrument through which her patients might improve their health. Some of the most vulnerable people in society were her patients; their struggle with the system was also her struggle.
Fiona Bradley was born in London in 1961 while her parents were working in Britain. Four weeks later the family returned to Dublin. She attended primary school in Blackrock and was a boarder in Wesley College, Ballinteer, from where she gained entry to Trinity in 1978 to study medicine.
Her undergraduate career included honours in most subjects and several prizes including the Marie Curie Foundation Prize for clinical excellence. Graduating with an honours degree in 1984, she gained a distinction in her psychiatry finals and first-class honours in social and preventive medicine.
After interning in St James's Hospital, she was accepted into the Dublin vocational training scheme for general practice. Three years later she had collected diplomas in child health and obstetrics and gained membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland.
Her decision, in 1989, to become a GP principal in the Leyton Green Neighbourhood Health Service in east London was indicative of her egalitarian convictions. The Leyton Green Practice, which served a socially and ethnically mixed population, was unique in its financial structuring. Every member of staff, from cleaners to the GPs, received the same hourly remuneration.
This was real community practice, developing strong links with the people it served. It was also Fiona's first experience of looking after HIV patients in general practice. Caring for patients with HIV/AIDS and carrying out research into their health needs was a thread that ran right through her life. Returning to Dublin in 1991, she worked with Dr Fergus O'Kelly, whom she greatly admired.
He cares for a deprived community in the south inner city devastated by intravenous drug use, and in him Fiona found both a mentor and a colleague committed as she was to social equity.
HIV/AIDS was a feature of her extensive list of medical publications. She was part of a research team in the Department of General practice and Community Health at TCD which has an international reputation in the study of HIV and hepatitis B and C infections among the Irish prison population. The research has led to changes in the healthcare of prisoners in this country.
She joined Prof Tom O' Dowd as lecturer in the Department of General Practice in Trinity College eight years ago, and he became her academic mentor. He considered her to have that rarest of qualities, an original and independent mind. Her research was carefully thought out and always reflected the problems she saw around her.
A further period spent working in Southampton as EU research fellow with the university's primary medical care group led to the publication of a landmark and often quoted paper in the British Medical Journal on the integrated care of people with established heart disease.
Back home in Ballymun, Fiona's keen eye turned to domestic violence as her next major research interest. She chose this area because of its relevance to her work in north Dublin but also because "researchers, like doctors, were turning a blind eye to the issue".
The groundbreaking research was the basis of her doctorate in medicine, awarded by Trinity College in 1999. Published earlier this year in the British Medical Journal, her work received international recognition as research that gives important new insights into the area of domestic violence and health.
Three days after she died, this same body of work was recognised by an Irish Journal of Medical Science award. It was posthumously accepted by Dr Fergus O Kelly on Thursday, the day she was buried.
Fiona Bradley was a gardener, yachtswoman, traveller, hill-walker and contemporary art collector. She particularly loved Donegal and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
An adviser on health policy to Democratic Left, she subsequently joined the Labour Party, voting in the recent leadership election. Despite being gravely ill, she took a keen interest in the result.
She is survived by her partner Gráinne, mother Pamela, father Brendan, sister Susie, brother Stephen and Deirdre, Claire and Daire.
Fiona Bradley: born September 28th, 1961; died November 25th, 2002