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Dr. Patrick J. Treacy was born in Garrison, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and first studied Hons. Molecular Biology in Queen's University Belfast and later Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin Ireland. He won the coveted Aer Lingus "Biochemist of the Year" and "British Young Scientist of the Year" prior to his first Molecular Biology degree. He also won the Norman Rae Gold Medal in Biochemistry during his studies for a medical degree.
Fascinated by the adventure of travel from an early age he lived in New York for some time before deciding to commence his medical degree. After completing his pre-clinical years he continued his travels, often following the advice proffered by Robert Frost's 1916 poem "The Road not Taken" that "he who never walks save where he sees men's tracks, makes no discoveries" and took a gap period travelling by way of the less known lands of Anatolia, Iran, Kurdistan, Baluchistan and later Afghanistan. His adventures in these regions continued in those interesting early days of Iranian Revolution, the emergent Mujahadeen and he witnessed the beginnings of the Deobandi schools of Islamic fundamentalism. These were also the revivalist years just after the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty, he was held captive for a period in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary guards before continuing his travels through the lands of the Lebanon, Israel, Sinai and north-eastern Africa. He returned to Ireland in the mid eighties to complete his medical degree after witnessing the first Israeli invasion of the Lebanon, the Israeli return of the Sinai peninsula and the imposition of military rule in Turkey. After graduation he worked as a doctor in Ireland for a time before emigrating to New Zealand in 1988 where he worked as a respiratory physician. In that period, the Vietcong had begun ethnic cleansing in the major cities in Vietnam, causing many Vietnamese to seek refugee status in Hong Kong and other Western nations, including New Zealand. His duties there included assessing the Vietnamese boat people for tuberculosis. In 1989 he was present in Berlin (and interviewed on French television) when the Iron Curtain, that symbolic, ideologic, and physical boundary which divided Europe into two separate areas was removed. In 1990, Dr.Treacy worked in the Ibn 'al Bitar hospital in Baghdad, in the months surrounding the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Toward the end of the war, the land conflict regressed into stalemate largely because neither side had enough air power and what followed was "the war of the cities". Like Thesiger, he visited the watery world of the Madan or Marsh Arabs, whose reed type marshlands were destroyed as part of Saddam Hussein's revenge on these people for harbouring Shi'ite deserters from the Iran-Iraqi war. He writes about some of these experiences on this travel website.
Further articles from the period may be found here. During these years of conflict, Dr.Patrick Treacy was also held captive for a period by Saddam Hussein's regime for visiting the scene of the chemical bombing of Halabja in Kurdistan without government permission. The Halabja poison gas attack occurred in the March period of 1988 during the Irna-Iraq war when chemical weapons were used by the Iraqi government forces and a number of civilians in the Iraqi Kurdish town. He was fortunate enough to be one of the last people out of Iraq (exactly four days) before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait as the other hospital staff were held for a period as hostages by the Iraqi government. During the early ninties, he spent many memorable days again travelling through the continent of Africa and in many published articles perfectly captures the magic of the Maasai, the growing silence of the savannah, the early horror of HIV, and all the joy and pain that presently exists in that continent. He later worked in South Africa and was amongst the first doctors to write politically against President Thabo Mbeki's government health policies regarding treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS in that country. He was invited to the 2003 UN Global Leadership Award Dinner in New York to honour Henry A. McKinnell CEO Pfizier and Dr. Alex Godwin Coutinho CEO T.A.S.O. for their efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. (Click here). During the Cuban boat refugee crisis, he worked as a ships surgeon with Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami, whose boats had to sometimes lift these people from the watery graves of the Caribbean waters. In one episode one of the cruise liners hit one of these boats killing many of the refugees. He lived in Santa Barbara in California for a period after that.
In later years, Dr. Treacy has been fortunate to have been able to continue working and travelling. He has worked in his profession in Ireland, United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States, Australia, South Africa, Iraq, Gibraltar and the Caribbean. His duties have included working in Broken Hill N.S.W. with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, being Surgical Lieutenant Commander with the New Zealand Naval Reserve in HMNZ Toroa, being employed as Ships Surgeon with Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami and also being assistant Port Medical Officer in Gibraltar. He also worked as a doctor in Formula 1 on the Albert Park track in Melbourne. He also wrote about the bombing of the Twin Towers, being in New York a few days after the buildings in the complex were destroyed by terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda. Dr. Treacy was also one of the first doctors invited to speak in Russia after the period of more open acceptence of Western values. To date, Patrick Treacy has visited over one hundred countries and recently won the coveted GSK Irish Medical Professional Journalist of the Year 2003. His travel stories have been read on the Quiet Corner on Irish National Radio and BBC Northern Ireland. His memoirs are often reminiscent of Karen Blixen, creating a remarkable memoir of this rich tapestry of life and his memories of the people we share it with. His award winning column the Cutting Edge is published weekly in the Irish Medical Times and he wrote the Destinations column for The Irish Medical News. His lecture series Minor Surgery is published monthly in Modern Medicine of Ireland and runs concurrently on the website www.minorsurgery.net, of which he is the editor. One of his stories about Aboriginals in Australia was recently published in "The Quiet Corner- Anthology of New Irish Writing." This travel website documents stories of some of the personal experiences that he has had while travelling around the world over the past twenty-five years. It is taken from the Destinations column and captures adventures on small islands in the Okovanga Delta, his enchantment with travelling through Middle Asia and Kurdistan, his fascination with the whole cultural fabric of creation, be it wandering through India or sitting on the side of Bob Marley's grave. He recalls those wonderful moments of meeting people who pass across his path, who leave indelible memories on the embroidered patchwork of his travels. Some of his travels can also be seen on YouTube. Dr. Patrick Treacy is presently Medical Director of the Ailesbury Clinics and DHI Ireland practices as a Cosmetic Dermatologist in Dublin, Cork, Dubai and London.
The Ailesbury Clinic, Ballsbridge Dublin recently won 'Best Medical Practice in Ireland' Award in 2005. It was also a shortlisted finalist in the Aesthetic Medical Magazine 2008 "Best Clinic in the UK and Ireland". The clinic has become famous recently as it became apparent celebrities such as Michael Jackson frequented its doors. Dr. Treacy refuses to disclose any details of his patients treatments, especially Michael whom he considered a friend. He recently said in a television interview "In Mahavanain Buddhism, there is an enlightened existence known as the ‘bodhisattva’ who decides to postpone attainment of nirvana in order to alleviate the suffering of others. In my own lifetime, I have been fortunate to have met some of these visionaries, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Bono, John Lennon and Michael Jackson". He continued "Only five people in nearly half a century, just enough to count on the fingers of one hand. Each of them, intrinsically motivated by a sense of great compassion, generating bodhicitta for the ultimate benefit of all sentient beings. All of these people, hugely influential, global messengers using their powers to try and make the world a better place for each of us to live in. Nelson Mandela stood against the injustice of apartheid, Mother Theresa and Bono against the injustice of poverty, John Lennon against the injustice of war but Michael Jackson went further. His body of artistic work carried a spiritual message for these and all of the other injustices of the human race…those o
f racism, inequality, disease, hunger and corruption.!"
