XXXIV Waterford Surgical October MeetingSaturday, 11 October 2025

Welcome to the XXXIV Waterford Surgical October Meeting 

On behalf of my colleagues on the organising committee, Professor Gerry O’Donoghue, Professor Fiachra Cooke, Mr Peter McCullough, Professor Padraig Daly, Professor Ruairi MacNiocaill, Professor May Cleary, Mr Daniel Hechtl, Dr Jaedan Chablal, Ms Jennie O’Leary and myself I would like to welcome you to this year’s XXXIV Waterford Surgical October Meeting. The theme of this year‘s meeting is “Research, Education and Training”.

This year at the Waterford Surgical October Meeting we focus on the various components essential to becoming a great surgeon. We all as surgeons have the dynamic position to be involved in training, education and research on a daily basis. I am very proud and delighted to announce an extremely distinguished faculty that will share their knowledge and wisdom in these areas. The speakers are truly world class and their perspectives are sure to inspire and innovate those of us in attendance.

The meeting will discuss in detail the relevant updates in undergraduate and post graduate training in surgery. It additionally aims to learn from those distinguished in surgical training both in the Irish surgical setting and abroad. It will explore the various research endeavours in the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative Group (ISRC), surgical simulation, tissue engineering and musculoskeletal infection.

Furthermore, this meeting acknowledges and celebrates the tremendous endeavour of research amongst us. Submissions and presentations by surgeons in training will provide additional opportunities to gain insights into surgical developments.

One of the huge highlights of this meeting is the Gordon Watson lecture which will be delivered by Professor Brendan Moran, retired Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, Peritoneal Malignancy Unit, Basingstoke, UK. It is a huge honour and pleasure to welcome Professor Moran's experience, wisdom and insights into the lessons he has learned as an innovator throughout his exemplary career spent working in rectal cancer and peritoneal malignant unit setting. It is with great excitement that I welcome you all to the XXXIV Waterford Surgical October Meeting. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the meeting. 

Professor Peter M. Neary MB, MScLHPE, MA, MD, FRCS(Colorectal)

Professor & Inaugural Chair of Surgical Oncology
Academic Head of Department
Consultant General & Colorectal Surgeon
University Hospital Waterford/University College Cork

Professor Brendan Moran

Biography

Brendan Moran is Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon in Basingstoke, UK, Honorary Professor of Surgery in the University of Sydney, Australia; and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Cancer Sciences Division, Southampton, UK. He qualified in 1980 in Cork and trained in surgery in Ireland between 1980 and 1984 with FRCSI in 1984. He spent 18 months in Ghana, West Africa,in 1985–1986 as a volunteer surgeon before completing his training in London Basingstoke and Southampton UK.

Brendan’s main interests are in rectal cancer and peritoneal malignancy. He has developed and led national and international multidisciplinary workshops in the surgery for rectal cancer over the past 20 years and continues to do so with the current Pelican OReCO (optimising rectal cancer outcomes) UK and Ireland programme. He has popularised the concept that ‘decisions are more important than incisions’, suggesting that case election and precision surgery are the key to the best outcomes in all aspects of surgery.

Brendan established the Peritoneal Malignancy Institute, Basingstoke, which has expanded to be the largest centre in the world in the treatment of disseminated appendix tumours and other peritoneal malignancy, particularly colorectal peritoneal metastases. He has helped establish centres in peritoneal malignancy in several countries, most notably The Mater Dublin, Birmingham and Cardiff in the UK and in Sydney Australia.

He is Honorary Fellow RCSI.

Mr Peter Keogh

Biography

• Graduated: Trinity College Dublin, 1979
• Commenced Orthopaedics 1984
• Fellowships:
  • Hand: Derby, 1992
  • Spine: Nottingham, 1992-1993
  • Hip/Knee Arthroplasty: Phoenix, 1993
• Consultant
  • Hip/Knee Arthroplasty: Tullamore, 1994-1997
  • Trauma
  • MS Infection: Connolly/Cappagh, 1997- present         

Professor Kevin Barry

Biography

Kevin Barry, Consultant General Surgeon is a graduate of the Medical School at  University College Cork ( 1986). He completed his basic surgical training at Galway University Hospital and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1990. He then travelled to the United States of America for a 3 year period and received further surgical training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Professor Barry completed his surgical training in 1999 and was appointed as Consultant General Surgeon to Mayo University Hospital that year. He is also a member of the multidisciplinary team at the Symptomatic Breast Clinic at Galway University Hospital since 2008.

Professor Barry is actively involved in many aspects of undergraduate and postgraduate surgical education and training in Ireland. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Mayo Medical Academy, which is a recognised affiliate of the School of Medicine at  the University of Galway. Professor Barry is an Honorary Professor in Surgery since 2014.

Professor Barry is the current National Director of Surgical Training Programmes with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He has been an intercollegiate examiner in surgery since 2007. He has authored more than 150 peer reviewed publications in the surgical literature. In 2022, he delivered the  State of the Art Lecture at the Freyer Surgical Symposium, University of Galway on the topic of “ A vision for surgical training in Ireland.

Professor Barry maintains close links with the American College of Surgeons as a Fellow , and also as a member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the American College. He is also involved in developing a programme of inter-professional learning for postgraduate trainees within the framework of the Interact 100 project of the European Cancer Organisation.

Ms. Sorcha O'Meara

Biography

Sorcha O'Meara graduated from UCD medicine in 2015 and started the core surgical training programme in 2017. She progressed onto the urology HST in 2019, taking time out of training to complete a PhD through the StAR programme in RCSI. She is currently an ST7 in urology in St Vincent’s University Hospital. She plans to specialise in female, functional and reconstructive urology.

Ms Julliette Buckley

Biography

Ms. Julliette Buckley is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at University Hospital Limerick and a Lecturer in Surgery at University College Cork (UCC), where she has been a faculty member since 2014. A graduate of UCC, she plays a key role in medical education, serving as the Module Coordinator for the final-year undergraduate surgery module and as the Academic Year Lead for the Final Medical Year. Ms. Buckley is dedicated to advancing surgical education and has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, receiving student-nominated awards in both 2018 and 2025.

Professor Paul Ridgway

Biography

Paul Ridgway MA MB MD BCh BAO MMedSc FEBS FRCSI

Paul Ridgway is Professor of Surgery, Trinity College Dublin. He is a Consultant in General, UGI and HPB Surgery and his research interest are Surgical Performance and Education. He is fellowship trained in Surgical Oncology with previous postings in St Mary’s Hospital/ Imperial College London (UK) and in the University Health Network Surgical Oncology (Toronto) and the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.  He was the National Clinical Advisor for General Surgery to the NCPS in Ireland from 2016-2025. He is the Chair of the European Board of General Surgery (UEMS) and an elected Member of Council of RCSI.

He is the 2024 Sliver Scalper Trainer of the Year recipient.

Mr Conor Toale

Biography

Conor Toale is a Higher Specialist Trainee in General Surgery and a 2016 graduate of Trinity College Dublin. He recently completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Surgical Science and Practice at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, undertaken through the RCSI’s Strategic Academic Recruitment (StAR) Programme.

Conor’s academic work is centred on surgical education, with particular interests in the assessment of operative competence, simulation-based training, and selection science. His research explores the development and validation of objective, reproducible methods for evaluating technical performance in surgery, as well as the integration of simulation into high-stakes assessment and trainee development. He has presented his findings at national and international conferences and has published with Annals of Surgery, JAMA Surgery and Surgical Endoscopy.

Conor currently serves as Co-Chair of the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative and has previously sat as the National Irish Representative for the Association of Surgeons in Training of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Through his combined clinical and academic practice, he aims to advance the standards of surgical education and contribute meaningfully to the evolution of training and assessment frameworks in Ireland and internationally.

Professor Tara Connelly

Biography

Tara Connelly is a Consultant Surgeon specialising in general surgery with a specialist interest in Paediatric Surgery in University Hospital Limerick. She is the first appointed consultant surgeon with a special interest in paediatric surgery in Ireland and works closely with Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin and Temple Street. Her elective paediatric work focuses on general surgical conditions of childhood. Her paediatric special interest is endoscopy.

Professor Connelly graduated with honours from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2009. She then received her Masters in surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. She completed her PhD from NUI Galway, with her research performed in Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, USA. After completing surgical training in Ireland, she completed a colorectal fellowship in Cleveland Clinic in 2022 and paediatric general surgery in King's College Hospital in London in 2023. With over 150 publications including 7 book chapters on colorectal surgery, Professor Connelly's research focuses on surgical genetics, biobanking and inflammatory bowel disease. She is also involved in multiple international collaborations.

Mr Morgan McMonagle

Biography

Morgan P. McMonagle, Consultant Vascular, Trauma & Humanitarian surgeon practising out of University Hospital Waterford. Trauma experience includes a fellowship in trauma surgery and critical care at Westmead Hospital and the world-renowned Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA in addition to the military wing at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham UK. He was the first trauma surgeon appointed to St. Mary’s Hospital in London as part of the London Trauma Network in 2011. He has extensive additional experience in pre-hospital care, including Careflight, Australia and MAGPAS UK.

As an educator he holds numerous positions including; Clinical Lecturer in Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Surgery at University College Cork (UCC), Honorary Lecturer in Surgery and Co-Director of MSc in Trauma at Imperial College, London and Director of the flagship Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills (DSTS) course at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSEng) which continues to train surgeons in trauma surgery who practice trauma as part of their job description in the UK and globally.

Most recently, he has teamed up with the Ministry of Defence and RCSEng and leads the ‘Combat Surgery Course’ to train Ukrainian military surgeons in war surgery. As a humanitarian he has undertaken missions in numerous conflict zones including Ukraine and most recently in Gaza, where he was surgical clinical lead for setting up of the first field hospital in Rafah in 2024 and later returned to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis and was on duty when it was bombed in March 2025. He is the author of two award-winning surgical textbooks (Vascular and Endovascular Surgery At A Glance (Wiley Blackwell, 2014) and Trauma: Code Red (Taylor & Francis, 2018) and most recently was awarded the 35th Annual George Clowes Jr Visiting Professorship in Trauma at Boston Medical Center and Boston University, USA in May 2025 and the Humanitarian and Community Award, RCSI 2025.

Mr Mohammed Al Azzawi

Biography

Mohammed Al Azzawi is a Higher Specialist Trainee in General Surgery with an interest in Upper GI Surgery. Mohammed graduated from RCSI Bahrain and moved to Ireland in pursuit of his surgical training. He completed a master's degree in surgery and research at RCSI in 2019 and recently completed a Medical Doctorate Degree in Gastric and Oesophageal Cancer. 

Mohammed's academic work and clinical research are centred around cancer research, with a special interest in HER2-positive gastric and oesophageal cancer, as well as the assessment of their corresponding biomarkers of response. With over 20 publications as a first author and in collaboration, Mohammed's primary interest remains in cancer and clinical research. 

He's currently the Co-Chair of the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative group and the Secretary of the Irish Surgical Trainee Group. His focus is on improving the current trainee experience and encouraging collaborative research amongst surgical trainees from different specialities. 

Professor Leonie Heskin

Biography

Leonie is currently Professor in Simulation Based Training and Director of ASSERT (Application of Science to Simulation based Education and Research on Training) simulation centre at UCC.

She trained as a Plastic surgeon in Ireland and the UK with a special interest in trauma and she also has degrees in design and bioengineering.
She specialised in surgical simulation during her 11 years at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) where she was the lead for surgical simulation technology development and a senior lecturer in postgraduate surgical education. There she led the Continuous Professional Development Support Scheme (CPDSS) surgical skills programme and the core surgical skills training programme for trainees in Ireland.

Professor Heskin has completed a PhD in surgical simulation (RCSI) and she has a keen interest in finding solutions for high functional fidelity in surgical simulator design.