BARBARA STOKES-O'HANLON, who has died aged 87, was one of Ireland's finest paediatricians and her living monument is St Michael's House in Glasnevin, Dublin, which was established to cater for children with intellectual disabilities.
She was born in London in 1922 to William (Bill) Stokes, an Irishman who became a Brigadier in the British army, and Pauline Reynolds, an English woman whose father had laid the Pacific cable.
She attended the academically rigorous and stimulating St Paul’s Girls’ School, which was also attended by Dr Dorothy Stopford-Price, her future colleague at St Ultan’s Hospital for Infants in Dublin. Both had been encouraged to pursue extra-curricular activities at St Paul’s and this became evident in both of their careers as paediatricians.
Indeed the list of staff at St Ultan’s in the first half of the 20th century read like a who’s who of Irish paediatric care: the first female paediatrician in Ireland, Dr Katherine Maguire, was an 1891 medical graduate of the Catholic University Medical School, and Dr Kathleen Lynn, an 1899 graduate, give enormous service to impoverished babies. Barbara Stokes-O’Hanlon carried on this significant tradition of service and expanded her work into new fields of endeavour.
Like many of her distinguished relatives, including William and Adrian Stokes, she studied medicine. Arriving at Trinity College Dublin as a 16-year-old on the eve of the second World War, she recalled being so cold during dissections she wore an overcoat.
Living in Howth provided welcome distractions with sailing becoming a particularly favourite activity for her and her sisters, Aideen and Mary. After graduation, Barbara’s uncle Adrian recommended her to the St Ultan’s medical board. In Kathleen Lynn, Irishwoman, Patriot Doctor, Lynn described her as follows: “God arranged for us to have Dr Stokes on Board. She has all the teaching requirements at her fingertips.”
Marriage in 1946 to the popular obstetrician Dr Rory O’Hanlon ensured that she had a partner who understood the demands of a busy professional life. He became assistant master in the Rotunda.
The birth of her three sons, Andrew, Paul and Denzil, provided her with much joy and some sorrow, due to the early deaths of Denzil and Paul. By the mid 1950s, she was approached by Patsy Farrell, the mother of one of her young patients, and they established the organisation Parents and Friends of Mentally Handicapped Children.
Discovering that so many of her professional colleagues were fatalistic and simply indifferent to children with intellectual disabilities, particularly Down syndrome children, she vowed to present their case for special provision to various government agencies. This acorn of discontent became the oak tree of St Michael’s House.
However, she also had a very successful practice specialising in paediatrics at 48 Fitzwilliam Square as well as lecturing appointments in the Royal College of Surgeons and Trinity.
She worked in Harcourt Street, the National Children’s Hospital and Baggot Street, the Royal City of Dublin Hospital. Barbara also served on the board of Stewart’s Hospital and was medical director of Cheeverstown in Templeogue which catered for intellectually challenged patients.
Her great friend Ruth Heard, who as Ruth Delaney has written books on the inland waterways of Ireland, delivered the eulogy at her funeral which made clear that Barbara was an “immensely strong and forthright person with definite ideas about things”.
She will be greatly missed by her much-loved granddaughter Jessica, her son Andrew and her daughter in-law Brigie, who always remembered her simple but effective philosophy: “Things could be awful lot worse.”
This sustained her through her many commitments as well as coping with MS for 35 years. Enjoying gardening as well as membership of the Georgian Society, and trips to various inland waterways, she brought her remarkable energy and fund of stories with her regardless of her environment.
She was a marvellous mentor of younger scholars and gave many papers at international conferences. Her generosity is attested to by her appearance in the references of other people’s work. Even in retirement, she compiled a catalogue of St Ultan’s papers with Maeb Ruane for the Royal College of Physicians.
Her final years at Leeson Street Nursing Home were marred somewhat by a stroke but on medical matters she remained as alert and as empathetic as ever.
She was predeceased in 1980 by Rory and by sons Paul and Denzil.
In 1979 she won Person of the Year Award. She is remembered internationally as the winner of the prestigious Kennedy Award for her work with the intellectually challenged. This was established by the family of US President John F Kennedy to honour their sister Rosemary.
Barbara Stokes-O’Hanlon: born March 22nd, 1922; died March 22nd, 2009