ART MCGANN:ART McGANN, who has died aged 86, was a dentist and witnessed many changes in his profession during almost five decades in private practice. He was the only person to be twice elected president of the Irish Dental Association – first, in 1970 and again in 2000.
His first presidential address was mainly concerned with a call for more consultation with government officials in the matter of expanding dental services.
In 2000 he welcomed the lower age profile of the membership and called on women dentists to become more involved in the association’s work.
The current president of the association Conor McAlister described him as the “personification of all that is good” in the association.
Martin Holohan, whom McGann succeeded as president in 2000, said he was a “consummate professional” for whom quality of patient care was paramount, and added that he was a “truly wonderful and charitable friend”. Born in Dublin in 1924, he was one of five children of Art McGann, a civil servant, and his wife Brigid (née O’Hagan). He attended Fairview national school and St Joseph’s CBS, Fairview, where his classmates included Harry Boland, George Colley and Charles Haughey. He and Haughey, whom he remembered as a “brilliant” pupil, became lifelong friends and the late taoiseach in time became one of his patients. He spent two year as a boarder at St Mary’s College, Knockbeg, Co Laois, after which he studied dentistry at University College Dublin.
Having qualified in 1949, he worked in Wakefield, Yorkshire, for a year.
He returned to Dublin in 1951 and set up a practice in Fairview, from which he retired in 1995. His family’s association with the practice is today continued by his son Garrett.
He joined the association’s metropolitan branch early in his career and was a key member of teams that negotiated contracts with both the departments of health and social welfare.
He was known as a tough negotiator and when department officials tried to introduce a reduced fee for two fillings he argued that the “second gallon of petrol costs the same as the first”.
Active in his profession’s regulatory body, the Dental Board (later Dental Council), he was appointed to the board of the Dental Hospital in 1990.
He was involved in the work of the Central Remedial Clinic, Clontarf, as chairman of the Parents and Friends Association, and also was a member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Finglas. He was a former member of the board of Clonliffe College.
He had a good singing voice and, as a boy soprano, was a prizewinner at Feis Átha Cliath. A proud GAA man, in younger life he played hurling and football for St Vincent’s. He later became a keen golfer and was a past captain of Royal Dublin.
He is survived by his wife Anne (née Hannan), whom he married in 1958, daughters Caroline and Maria and sons Art, Timmy and Garrett.
Dr Arthur Ignatius McGann: born July 30th, 1924; died May 7th, 2011.