Louisburgh medic honoured for her progressive legacy

RICHLY DESERVED Dr Hilary Lyons is pictured with her brother Tommy Lyons and his wife Peggie after she received her Honorary Fellowship.

Áine Ryan

LOUISBURGH native, Sr Dr Hilary Lyons has been admitted to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Born in The Colony, near Louisburgh, Sr Hilary is a Holy Rosary missionary and was nominated for the fellowship by Dr  Margaret Fitzgerald, who delivered the citation on her behalf during a recent ceremony in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
Brought up in The Colony and the eldest of nine children, Sr Hilary entered the convent immediately after her Leaving Certificate and went on to study medicine in UCD. Within a year of her qualifying she was posted to Sierra Leone to a small rural hospital in Serabu. Aged 29 she took on ‘the challenge of working on the frontline in Serabu which served a population of 40,000 in a tropical rainforest burdened with endemic diseases including malaria, typhoid, diarrhoeal diseases, small pox, Lassa fever and cholera’.
“She was a physician, paediatrician, surgeon and obstetrician As soon as she arrived she found herself having to perform an emergency caesarean section on the younger daughter of the local chief as she eloquently describes in her first book, Old Watering Holes: Mayo to Serape,” Dr Fitzgerald said.
Over the following 20 years she helped oversee the building of a modern 120-bed hospital, opened in 1970.
“Maternal child health was her priority and this lead her on a journey towards prevention and looking at wider determinants of health in her community,” she continued.        
 
Ethos
Her medical ethos was influenced by her interest in anthropology and the influence of culture, beliefs and health customs. She often left her hospital work behind in the evenings to travel with colleagues into the communities and villages, where she became acquainted with the leaders and was invited to join the female secret society, the Bundu.
A vocal proponent for public health and primary care, Dr Hilary worked with the Ministry of Health in Bo, with her influence ultimately going beyond Sierra Leone. Her huge contribution was marked by the Government of Sierra Leone in 1984 when it honoured her with the title of Commander of the Order of Rokel.
While retired in Ireland since 2000, she continues on many levels to be a passionate advocate for her adopted country.