UCD Honors Medicine Alumnus and U.N. Peacekeeper

By Olivia O’Mahony, Editorial Assistant
August / September 2016

Dr. Patrick Kelly (pictured above with Jamie Merisotis​,​ president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation) received an Alumni Honors Award from University College Dublin in June for his services to public peacekeeping and the medical field. Kelly, 31, graduated with a bachelor’s in medicine, surgery and gynecology in 2008, a master’s degree in sports and exercise medicine in 2010. He currently serves as a medical officer in the Irish Defense Forces. Also known as Captain Kelly, the Waterford City native was commended at the European Access Network 25th Annual Conference for excellence in international peacekeeping and a career dedicated to the care of those who are sick and unprotected.

Thomas McGrath, CEO of advanced analytics firm Elutins Inc. and one of the award judges, said that Kelly stood out because “he made the care and wellbeing of the poor and most vulnerable a priority in his work.”

While acting as a volunteer with the Order of Malta in 2008, Kelly was one of those responsible for the establishment of Ireland’s first mobile medical clinic for homeless individuals. In 2015, he was deployed to Sierra Leone, where he worked in a treatment facility for the Ebola virus at the peak of its outbreak. There, he received the British Army Force Commander’s Commendation for his help in setting up a cardiac first responders scheme in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Assisting him was the UCD Center for Emergency Medical Service.

Today, Kelly is deployed as a peacekeeper in the 52nd Infantry Group Quick Reaction Force with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights, a region of intense conflict on the border of Israel and Syria. ♦

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