One Mayo GP reflects on what it means to be a rural GP in Ireland and the positive role the family doctor can play in local communities despite the many challenges
Dr Jerry Cowley
love what I do as a single-handed rural practitioner. I’m dealing with ‘salt of the earth’ people who appreciate what little I do for them. I’ve had many opportunities to move to more central locations, but after my arrival in Mulranny I met my better half purely by chance at a wedding in Malin Head, thanks to a potential locum walking in the door to visit my landlady that very morning.
I am still in Mulranny 41 years later and I doubt very much I would still be here were it not for Teresa wanting to look out across Clew Bay at her native Lecanvey at the butt of Croagh Patrick. She is also the mother of my five children, three boys and two girls, the latter being the oldest and the youngest, both of whom have followed me into medicine.