UCC scholarship recognised as five academics elected to Royal Irish Academy

27 May 2025

Five senior academics from UCC were recently elected to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), the highest academic honour in Ireland.

The RIA celebrated Admittance Day, when 28 newly elected members were officially admitted to the Academy for their exceptional contributions to the sciences, humanities, and social science, as well as to public service.

The Academy has been honouring Ireland’s leading contributors to the world of learning since its establishment in 1785. There are 688 Members of the Royal Irish Academy (of whom 96 are Honorary or overseas Members). Past Members have included Maria Edgeworth, a pioneer of the modern novel and Nobel laureates: WB Yeats; Ernest Walton, Erwin Schrödinger and Seamus Heaney.

The UCC academics newly elected to the RIA are Professor Holger Claussen, Professor Mary Donnelly, Professor Nuala Finnegan, Professor Paul McSweeney, and Professor Denis O’Mahony. Their elections to the RIA bring the number of UCC academics in the RIA to 55.

Denis O’Mahony is Professor and Consultant Physician in Geriatric and Stroke Medicine at University College Cork and Cork University Hospital. A medicine graduate from UCC in 1985, Denis returned to Cork University Hospital as consultant physician in 1999, appointed senior lecturer in the School of Medicine in 2005, and professor in 2014. Denis has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has also published two books and numerous book chapters on drug therapy in older people.

Denis’ research is mainly in the area of inappropriate prescribing in older people, particularly focused on the design, validation, and application of STOPP/START criteria for detection of potentially inappropriate medications in individual older patients. STOPP/START is an organised set of explicit prescribing criteria created with the aim of minimising adverse medication in older people with multiple medical conditions (so-called ‘multimorbidity’) resulting in multiple medications or ‘polypharmacy’. In recent years, his research has largely involved organisation and running of national and European Commission-funded clinical trials of interventions based on STOPP/START criteria applied in older multimorbid patients with polypharmacy presenting to hospital with acute illnesses.

Speaking about his admittance to the RIA, Professor O’Mahony said: “It is a great honour to receive membership of the Royal Irish Academy. I hope that in the coming years I can, as an academic geriatrician, provide some useful insights and experience to the RIA and wider Irish society in relation to pharmacotherapeutics in late life in particular and the evolving impact of societal ageing in Ireland in general, this being one of the two greatest existential challenges facing Ireland in the coming decades alongside climate change.”

Professor Helen Whelton, Head of College of Medicine and Health at UCC and Chief Academic Officer, HSE South West, congratulated all five academics admitted to the RIA, and paid a warm tribute to Professor Denis O'Mahony.

Professor Whelton said: “Denis O’Mahony’s election to the Royal Irish Academy is a fitting recognition of his significant contribution to medication safety for older adults globally. It also acknowledges his impactful contributions to research and academic life at UCC. In his new role as Regional Director of Research for HSE South West, he is well placed to promote translational research, evidence-based practice, and to shape the future of research in healthcare across the region.”

Professor John O’Halloran MRIA, President of UCC, said: “University College Cork is immensely proud to see five staff members elected to the Royal Irish Academy this year. This well-earned recognition is not just a reflection of their accomplishments at the forefront of their disciplines, but of the impact of their work and their contributions to their respective fields. These researchers will enhance the work of the Academy, and I look forward to their continued contributions here at UCC, as we work to secure a sustainable and equitable future.”

Professor Pat Guiry, President of the Royal Irish Academy, said: “We are delighted to welcome the newly elected Members of the Royal Irish Academy. Our mission is to recognise and foster academic excellence, and to create, curate and share knowledge for the good of society. Their election today embodies this mission, and their insights and achievements will enrich the work of the Academy as we continue to lead trusted and independent dialogue and analysis across the island for the benefit of all.”

Full details are available at UCC.