Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience host 6th Thanksgiving Service

4 Jan 2026

The Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience held its sixth Thanksgiving Service on Tuesday 10th March 2026.  A very special event in the calendar of the College of Medicine & Health at UCC, the multi denominational Thanksgiving Service once again brought together families of donors, staff and students Anatomy, in a musical and reading celebration.

2026 Thanksgiving Service

Held biannually in UCC’s Honan Chapel the Thanksgiving Service gives the University, and staff and students in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience an opportunity to meet with families of recent donors to thank, acknowledge and reflect on the extraordinary gift of donation.

Professor Gerard O'Keeffe, Head of Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, Professor Aonghus Lavelle, Professor of Clinical Anatomy, Dr Susan Rafferty-McArdle, College of Medicine and Health Manager along with staff and students, represented the School of Medicine UCC.

The event was hosted by Mr Wayne Sheehan, Technical Officer in the Anatomy FLAME Laboratory.  Wayne welcomed all attendees and warmly introduced the speakers, readers and musicians throughout the service. The service opened with a performance of Amazing Grace, by J. Newton, performed by the UCC Choir, conducted by Dr Eva McMullan, Lecturer UCC Music Department and MSc Neuroscience graduate, with piano accompanist Criostóir Ó Loingsigh, Graduate Entry Medicine 1.   (01:50 video)

Dr Eva McMullan conducting the UCC Choir.

Welcome Address

Professor Gerard O’Keeffe, Head of Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience, delivered a Welcome Address and thanked 'those who choose to donate their bodies for medical and scientific education,' adding that 'this decision is a deeply selfless act; a gift given for the benefit of students that they will never meet, and for patients that they will never know'.

Professor Gerard O'Keeffe Head of Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience.

Professor O'Keeffe described that 'for students, working with a donor is one of the most important experiences of their education and shapes not only their education but their values. It reminds them and us that medicine and health sciences are ultimately about people, about dignity, trust and care, and the impact of this gift extends far beyond this university. It lives on in the skills that the graduates carry to hospitals clinics laboratories and communities, and in that way the legacy of the donors continues in the care and compassion shown to people throughout our communities’.   (05:23 video)

Opening Message

Fr Gerard Dunne, Chaplain, UCC Chaplaincy, in an Opening Message acknowledged the huge gift of the donors saying 'this ceremony is a tribute to those who in death have served the living. Anatomy Donation is an incredible act of incredible solidarity; donation is entangled with the feeling of loss and bereavement and yet in a deeply and emotional and paradoxical way it turns into emotion of life renewed and continued.'   (7:48 video)

Guest Speaker: A Clinical Reflection

A Clinical Reflection was delivered by invited speaker Professor Mark Corrigan, Consultant Surgeon and Surgical Oncologist, Cork University Hospital.  While thanking the donors and their families and loved ones, Professor Mark Corrigan spoke about how in preparing his words, he wished to ensure that the families left the service ‘fully understanding the enormity of the gratitude that we have towards our donors and their families’.

He spoke to the families ‘the generosity of your loved ones has benefited countless people and will continue to benefit countless people both seen and unseen for the years to come’.

Professor Mark Corrigan, Consultant Surgeon and Surgical Oncologist, Cork University Hospital

Referencing  first century philosopher Cicero, Professor Corrigan spoke to the donors ‘in your final act of profound kindness you have planted trees whose shade you will never sit under, but which will shelter countless others’, ‘every surgeon who learns a new skill and every patient who benefits from safer surgery in the future will carry forward part of that generosity.’

Professor Corrigan then described how American poet Walt Whitman in his poem ‘Song of myself’ explores the idea of mortality and immortality;  that we all live on, in the earth, and in the people left behind, ‘If you want me again look for me’, ‘missing me one place search another’, ‘I stop somewhere waiting for you.’

He suggests that Whitman's words can be read as the voice of our donors: ‘If you want me again look for me' ‘on the hospital wards at nightfall’, ‘in the operating theatres as the sun breaks', and 'in the families of the loved ones who welcome their loved ones home for just that little bit longer.’  Professor Corrigan conveyed to the families the huge clinical importance and continuing effect of donors’ decision to donate on so many lives, and expressed the sincere gratitude of clinicians to the donors and their families.   (10:13 video)

Passing the Flame of Knowledge

Donor family members and students representing the School of Medicine, were then introduced and welcomed to the front of the chapel.  Symbolising the Passing of Knowledge from loved ones to students; donor family members Dominic Moloney and Anna-Marie Willis lit a candle held by students Princess Chukwu, Direct Entry Medicine 1 and Anna Conlon, Medical and Health Sciences 1.

Ruairí Walsh, Medical & Health Sciences 1, performed on violin Gabriel’s Oboe by E. Morricone as the candle lighting ceremony took place.   (16:53 video)

Photo: Family members Dominic Moloney and Anna-Marie Willis lighting a candle for students Princess Chukwu, Direct Entry Medicine 1 and Anna Conlon, Medical and Health Sciences 1. Ruairí Walsh, Medical & Health Sciences 1, violin.

Anatomy Students perform music, deliver reflections and recite poetry 

A selection of music, readings and poetry followed performed and read by current anatomy students. Memory can tell us only what we were, by Richard Fife, was read by student Anastazja Mazur, Direct Entry Medicine 1. (19:01) Graduate Entry Medicine 1 student Sylvia Emerah performed a beautiful interpretation of Purpose, by J. Bieber, accompanied on piano by classmate, Criostóir Ó Loingsigh.   (19:44 video)Sylvia Emerah, Graduate Entry Medicine 1 student. 

A Personal Reflection was read by student Maya Nue-Lee, Graduate Entry Medicine 1.  Maya described her experience of being an anatomy student and the immense privilege and experience of working with a donor, 'When I think of a heart, I will forever see yours, and remember the moment where I felt I understood just a bit more about what makes us human, With utmost gratitude and eternal wonder, I thank you.’   (24:08 video)

Sinéad Fleming, Direct Entry Medicine 1. Sinéad Fleming, Direct Entry Medicine 1, then performed the much loved Prelude, Cello Suite No. 1, G major by J. S. Bach on viola, (26:25) and Myles McGovern, Graduate Entry Medicine 1 followed with a reading of Late Fragment, by Raymond Carver.   (29:55 video)

Direct entry medicine year 2 students Grace Mulcahy O’Sullivan on flute, and Anastasia Vakaloudi harp, together performed the Intermezzo from the opera Carmen by George Bizet.   (30:37 video)

Remember by Christina Rossetti was then read by Direct Entry Medicine year 1 student Adam Tynan O’Connor. (33:46 video), followed by a sean-nós piece Bóthar Chluain Meala, sung by Criostóir Ó Loingsigh, Graduate Entry Medicine 1 (34:55). Niall O’Callaghan, an MSc Human Anatomy student read the poem, So many different lengths of time by Brian Patten.   (37:40 video)

Éabha Sabatino, Direct Entry Medicine student 2

Éabha Sabatino, second year Direct Entry Medicine student performed Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen on harp. It was very special for the Department to have Eabha perform at this event, as she is the grandniece of retired Anatomy lecturer Dr Audrey Bradley, who taught Anatomy to Medical and Dental students for over 35 years before retiring in 1998. (39:33 video) Adam Counihan, Direct Entry Medicine 1 then read the poem Everything is going to be all right by Derek Mahon.   (42:03 video)

Guest Performer: 

The Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience was delighted to welcome professional Soprano Helen Hancock to perform the song Áinlí - Swallow birds, which was composed by first year Graduate Entry Medicine student and Music Graduate Criostóir Ó Loingsigh.   Guest Soprano Helen Hancock sings Áinlí - Swallow birds, composed by first year Graduate Entry Medicine student, Criostóir Ó Loingsigh on piano.  

Set to the words of Máirtín Ó Direáin's poem, the piece references the story of Eoghainín na nÉan* ('Little Eoghan of the Birds') by Patrick Pearse.  

*At the coming of summer each year, Eoghainín na nÉan, a young boy, watches out from the cliffs for the return of his beloved swallows and spends the summer talking to them until they leave again. One particular year, Eoghainín ‘decides’ that he will leave with the swallows when the end of summer comes, leaving behind his native place, his mother, and this life, for ‘the land where it is always summer'.    (42:44 video)

Closing Message

Rev Alan Marley, Chaplain, UCC Chaplaincy then delivered a Closing Message, in which he thanked those who have given the crucial gift of themselves. He spoke to ‘the families and loved ones of those who have given this gift’, to ‘be aware the gratitude and respect in which it is received'. He thanked the students, staff and health care professionals for the ‘reverence with which you have drawn together this Thanksgiving Service, and we thank you that it is the same respect that runs through all that is undertaken in the Department’.  He then concluded adding ‘As we go back to our daily lives, we do not leave this experience behind rather we carry it with us, we carry the knowledge that someone’s final wish, someone’s legacy is now woven into the fabric of the skills and compassion of your continuing work’.  (45:37 video)

Closing Thanks and Music

Wayne Sheehan concluded the event with some final thanks and an invitation to all to attend a reception in the UCC Hub before announcing the closing music (47:39 video). The UCC Choir conducted by Dr Eva McMullan and accompanied by Criostóir Ó Loingsigh brought the Thanksgiving Service to a joyful conclusion performing A Blessing, by J. Althouse.  (48:24 video).

Video recording of 2026 Thanksgiving Service

Link: Video Recording: 2026 Thanksgiving Service 

Further Details and Links

• Anatomical Donor Appreciation: Commissioned Flame Sculpture
• Anatomical Donor Appreciation: Thanksgiving Ceremony
• Anatomical Donations page Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience website

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Anatomical Donors, the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience deeply appreciates the generosity and selflessness of the sacrifices that our donors have made in the past, and continue to make, to support medical education. The Department remains forever indebted to these wonderful individuals, and to their families, without whose support the Anatomical Donation Programme could not continue.

Thank you to Fr Gerard Dunne, Rev. Alan Marley, and the staff of the UCC Chaplaincy for providing us with access to the Honan Chapel and for all their support in arranging this service. To our invited speaker Professor Mark Corrigan, Consultant Surgeon and Surgical Oncologist, Cork University Hospital, for taking the time to prepare and deliver his Clinical Reflection. 

A warm thank you to Dr Eva McMullan and the UCC Choir for their continued support performing at this event. Thank you to our host Wayne Sheehan, readers, musicians and ushers;  students from Medicine, Dentistry, Medical Health Sciences, Clinical Therapies, Neuroscience and Anatomy, for their enthusiasm and collaboration. And thank you to the staff of the Anatomy FLAME Laboratory and Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, and Thanksgiving Service organisers; Dr Sue Grenham, Ms Carrie O'Flynn and Ms Bereniece Riedewald.

A special thanks to Soprano Helen Hancock who traveled Cork to perform Áinlí, recorded in 2025 and composed by our first year Graduate Entry Medicine student Criostóir Ó Loingsigh.

Anatomical Donation Programme University College Cork

If you are interested and wish to make enquiries, please contact:

Ms Shelley O’Shea, 
Administrator
Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience

Phone (021) 420 5497 
Email anatomy@ucc.ie

For more on this story contact:

News item and photograpy Bereniece Riedewald