Pearse O'Malley: P. Pearse O'Malley, one of the key pioneers in the development of the North's psychiatric services, has died aged 86. He educated his medical colleagues and his patients to a view of their illness that was far removed from the lonely, isolated, institutionalised care available in the 1950s and 1960s.
It was decades before his colleagues, government and society came round to agreeing with him and sent these patients back into the community.
He was born to Patrick and Susan O'Malley in Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh, in 1918 and attended primary school there and later at the Abbey CBS in Newry. During these years he stayed with his cousins in Warrenpoint, travelling into school by train - now long gone.
He graduated from Queen's as a doctor in Belfast in 1941 and went on to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1955 and a Foundation Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1971.
From 1946 until his retirement in 1981 he was consultant neuro-psychiatrist at the Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Belfast, clinical teacher at Queen's and, for many years, a member of the Northern Ireland Mental Health Tribunal. He continued in private practice at the Ulster Independent Clinic until 1992. During these decades and indeed right up to this year he published regularly on a wide range of professional subjects.
O'Malley was unshakeable in his view that mental illness should be treated in the same context as other ill-health, that those suffering from mental illness should be admitted to the same hospitals as other types of patient and afforded the same respect, dignity and courtesy as others.
In 1946, in an old Victorian building, he negotiated with the Sisters of Mercy a neuro-psychiatric department which was unique for its open, bright appearance and small, comfortable rooms providing unusual privacy compared to the large open wards so common elsewhere. It was the first, and for many years the only, acute psychiatric department in a general hospital in Ireland.
He always expressed a keen interest in cerebral function as well as mental activity, hence his insistence on a neuro-psychiatric department and, throughout 46 years of practice, he continued with this dual approach by exploiting fully the huge leaps made in therapeutic remedies in his and other specialities during that period.
As well as a distinguished professional and academic career he had a profound interest and knowledge of politics and the arts. With Mary, his beloved wife, he was the co-founder of the Lyric Players Theatre, established in 1951 as a Poets' Theatre.
Such was the vision that a drama school, a music academy, a literary periodical, Threshold, and the New Gallery were all developed as part of the Lyric Players Theatre, and during their time the Lyric enjoyed both considerable controversy and success.
Friends say they will remember him as the best of company, a loyal friend, an encouraging mentor and a helpful colleague, at his funeral expressed best in Yeats's words, "I hear it in the deep heart's core."
He is survived by his wife, Mary, his three sons, Kieran, also a psychiatrist, Donal and Conor, and his many grandchildren.
P. Pearse O'Malley: born April 22nd, 1918; died October 11th, 2004.