Brian McNicholl:BRIAN McNICHOLL, emeritus professor of paediatrics at NUI Galway, died peacefully on January 21st, aged 87. He will be best remembered in the medical world for his contribution to research on coeliac disease.
From the mid-1960s, his publications, based on research with colleagues at the then Regional Hospital and University College Galway, raised awareness of coeliac disease in the west of Ireland and established that the condition was much more prevalent worldwide than had been realised.
Brian will also be remembered for his lasting contribution to the welfare of children and adults with mental disabilities.
In 1962 he was among the founder members of the Galway Association for Mentally Handicapped Children (now Ability West), at a time when people with mental disability had a very poor quality of life.
Born in November 1920 in Cork, where his father, Joseph, was manager of the gas works, Brian was the youngest of five sons. His parents met in Warrington, Lancashire, but moved to Cork in 1919. The McNicholl side of the family, some generations earlier, had emigrated to England from near Maghera, Co Derry.
Brian's mother, Bridget (nee Kelleher), was originally from Clonmeen, Co Cork.
Brian was educated at Christian Brothers College, Cork, and Newbridge College, Co Kildare. He graduated from UCC with honours in 1943 and received his MD and DCH in 1946. He specialised in paediatrics and worked in Nottingham, Manchester and London.
In 1952-53 he held UCC's Ainsworth travelling scholarship concurrently with a research fellowship in paediatrics at Harvard Medical School. In the US he worked in the Children's Medical Centre, Boston, and the newborn infant unit of Boston Lying-in Hospital.
In 1954 Brian moved to Galway as a part-time consultant paediatrician to the then Central Hospital. At University College Galway he was a clinical teacher in paediatrics until his appointment to a lectureship in 1959. When the department of paediatrics was established in 1967, he became its first professor, and in 1970-73 was dean of the medical faculty. For his first 10 years in Galway he was the only children's specialist in the west and was permanently on call.
During his career he served on various research boards and government committees; he was president of the Irish Paediatric Association and the Irish and American Paediatric Society, was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and was an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics.
He was an active member of the Corrigan Club, an all-Ireland society of physicians holding annual meetings in Northern Ireland or the Republic since the 1960s.
Brian had more than a professional attachment to the west. In the early 1950s he was introduced to Joan Daly through his brother Jim (Fr Ambrose OP). Jim was based at the Angelicum in Rome, where Joan had met him during a pilgrimage. They married in 1956 and raised four children.
After Brian retired, they made the most of a second honeymoon, travelling widely to see the world and visit far-flung family and friends.
They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary just a couple of years before Joan died in 1998 of motor neurone disease.
Brian's varied interests kept his spirits up after Joan's death. A keen angler, he spent many days at the Weir in Galway or on the lakes and rivers of Connemara; golf and walking were year-round pursuits. He loved music, art and reading; and not least, the company of family, friends and neighbours.
Outwardly a reserved character, his underlying wit, warmth and humour won him many friends, while his professional integrity and breadth of knowledge earned him the respect and appreciation of his patients and colleagues. He seldom said a bad word or lost his temper - except on the golf course!
His longevity may be ascribed to practising what he preached as early as 1959: "I think the word 'tonic' should be reserved for that pleasant substance we occasionally drink with our gin . . . The only tonics of any value are a well-balanced and adequate diet, sensible habits of behaviour and bowel function, adequate sleep, exercise and fresh air."
He would have readily conceded that, for adults, an evening of laughter and good wine is also a wonderful tonic.
He is survived by his children, Janet, Rachel, Brian and Ian, and six grandchildren. They and many others miss him deeply but will be comforted by the knowledge that he led a full and rewarding life, contributing greatly to the world he lived in.
Brian Manus McNicholl: born November 11th, 1920; died January 21st, 2008