Medicine Matters

This book is about my life as a hospital doctor in Ireland (1970-2011). It begins with graduation from University College Dublin (UCD), marriage, and early years in the Federated Voluntary Hospitals (FDVH) training scheme in Dublin. The journey to America to obtain specialist training, not knowing if we would ever return to Ireland, follows. It includes the gamble of returning to Ireland, the difficulties of obtaining a consultant post and of setting up a research laboratory.
A few visits to the Middle East are remembered but most of all my training in Seattle, USA, to become a ‘Bone Marrow Transplanter’ and the subsequent difficulties encountered while endeavouring to establish a new medical service in Ireland. My role in the Hepatitis C crisis and the difficulties involved are also recounted. My eventual move to the School of Medicine, Trinity College as Professor of Academic Medicine in 2006, and the accompanying successes and failures are described.
The book ends with some comments on the Irish Health Service and the current pandemic. Finally, my recent diagnosis with cancer of the lymph glands and the strangeness of being treated in a unit I had built up and been in charge of for over 20 years is described.


Shaun McCann, an internationally renowned Irish haematologist charts his career through a period of immense change, not only in science and medicine but also in society. To the story he brings his personal perspective, a charming combination of humour and old school values with an underlying determination to embrace, and indeed drive, change, even when it created enemies.
Jane Apperley, Professor of Haemato-oncology, Imperial College, London, UK.

Prof. McCann’s breadth of knowledge in diverse fields is exceptional. For the past 3 years he has contributed a monthly editorial to BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION on the unlikely intersection between haematology (blood disorders) and oenology which have been very well received, highly-cited and published as a book (Wine and Blood: an unlikely pairing’ ISBN 978-99753417-7-6). He has published more than 200 scientific articles listed in the US National Library of Medicine. He performed the first bone marrow transplant in Ireland.
Prof. McCann’s memoir, is most impressive with an interesting content and lively writing style.
Robert Peter Gale. Visiting Professor of Haematology, Imperial College, London, UK.