FOR THOSE of us who knew and loved Derry, his loss leaves a great gap. He was great in many ways, not only in size, but also - and especially - in the quality of his friendship. He left us in December, a cold bleak month. Although he had not been well for some time, the end came quite suddenly. Behind him he leaves not only a loving family, but a host of friends - many of them patients - who will miss him greatly.
In Midleton, Co Cork, where he" ran the hospital and had practised for more than a generation, he was loved and respected as were country based physicians of a former age, whom he much resembled. He was healer and philosopher, wise, kind and compassionate, with a bedside manner that flowed in abundance. But his views were firm, and he could be impatient with what he considered foolishness and brusque when he felt it was called for.
He was eclectic friend of Frank O'Connor and other - mostly Cork - artists, Derry had a great love of poetry, history, literature and developed a late fondness for classical music - though he was the first to admit that his "ear" was not too good. He could, and did, pour scorn on many of his colleagues for their medical tunnel vision and ignorance of literature and the classics.
I knew him all of his too short 69 years and shared much with him - including rugs, prams and nurses. His death came as a shattering blow, the more so because it was unexpected and happened while I was abroad and unable to be there at the end.
Together we discovered and explored the world. Gougane Barra - the hidden Gougane of the old days - was special to both of us, and he it was who visited me there as often as possible when I lived there as a child. We went there together - in a sense, a journey into old memories - only a year ago. It was our last excursion together, and an important one for us both. We also shared a love of Spain, where our mothers' family - had interests.
Together with his many friends and patients, and with his dear family, let me say - primo y amigo mio, vaya con Dios. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.