County Sligo surgeon’s life was dedicated to caring for others

Fintan Thomas Shannon departed this life peacefully, surrounded by his loving family on 6th December 2022, aged 83 years.

He had stoically endured a challenging illness whilst maintaining his cheerful disposition, resilience and concern for others over the course of his final challenging journey.

Born in West Clare in 1938, younger brother to Joan, Maeve, DD, older brother to Bill, Fintan grew up in the West of Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s that gave him a degree of humility and resilience that stayed with him all his life.

With an enquiring mind and of a practical nature, he initially studied Engineering in Cork, but then changed to Medicine having gained a scholarship to study in RCSI to follow his own fathers footsteps, who had died when Fintan was just a two year old boy.

As a medical student he met the love of his life Lilian who was a junior doctor in Jervis Street Hospital in Dublin.

He graduated in 1967 and they married in 1968. They were a beautiful couple together, full of love for one another that spilled over to make for an enriched family life as they moved between Ireland, Scotland, England and the US.

In 1978 he moved to Ireland to help establish the Orthopaedic Service in the North West of Ireland, initially based in Manorhamilton and then on to Sligo.

Working with Brendan Healy and Andrew Macey they established a centre of excellence that has saved lives and transformed the lives of many people since its inception.

He specialised within Orthopaedics in the care of children with foot, hip and spinal problems and he took great pride in seeing those children stand up straight and walk tall.

Fintan was a hard-working, professional, dedicated to his patients. Demanding at times of his staff, he strove to educate and work towards excellence in all he did to ensure the best outcome for the people that he served.

Fintan was humble and modest to a fault, with a goodness and grace for his fellow man that came straight from his heart.

You could see his heart in action whenever he met others – it didn’t matter who they were, everyone got the same genuine treatment.

His natural grace, charm and wit ensured encounters made the other person feel always respected and often special.

Fintan was calm and patient, hard-working and scholarly. He loved to both read and recite. A native Irish speaker from his school time in BallyVourney, he loved this country, its nature and its natural beauty, particularly of his native county of Clare, his adopted county of Sligo and his home in Clogherevagh.

He enjoyed this country’s poetry and its prose. With a story and good humour, he could entertain as well as educate. He was polite in all his dealings. He was a gentle gentleman.

Fintan had a warmth and depth of humanity that carried many an ill or injured patient through their difficult times and his Christian faith and commitment were a fundamental part of this. A further practical expression was his overseas voluntary work, first in 1996 in Bosnia during the war and later in Ethiopia in 2003 – the year of his retirement.

After this first visit to the Black Lion hospital in Addis Ababa, he went annually for ten years having seen first hand the huge need. He wanted to be helpful and of service to others.

He made great efforts to learn Amharic in order to better understand the people and their culture, for whom he developed a deep respect and affection, not least as they had almost nothing to help them when illness or accidents struck.

On his retirement and on the cusp of retiring together, he lost the love of his life, his wife Lilian. Her untimely death 18 years earlier was a loss that he never truly got over, though he took great comfort in his grandchildren, watching them grow up around him.

After his time on earth making this world a better place, Fintan is now at peace, with Lilian, as they both rest under the gaze of Knocknarea, together…. forever.

Fintan is survived by his four children Tony, Fintan, Anne Marie and Edel and thirteen grandchildren. Fintan also had a very close and lifelong relationship with his siblings: Joan, Maeve, Deirdre and Bill, all of whom he has left behind and miss him dearly.

His wife Lilian, also a medical doctor, predeceased him in 2004.

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