By Harry Walsh
WELL-KNOWN and respected Ardara doctor, Dr Mireille Sweeney, has hung up her stethoscope after practising at the town’s medical centre for almost 30 years.
Dr Sweeney, 63, carried out the last consultation at her surgery in August and bid farewell to colleagues and staff at a celebratory function at the parish centre.
Born in Aix en Provence, France, Dr Sweeney studied medicine in Marseille and first came to Ireland as a young doctor in the 1980s to be “cured of her love for Ireland”.
The mother-of-four arrived at Ardara in the winter of 1995, replacing Dr McNamara, a man who was very much embedded in the local community.
She said that she had mixed feelings about leaving medicine, admitting that she resigned with a “heavy heart” after years of coping with an unrelenting workload which, at times, took a toll on her own health.
“I loved the job but, unfortunately, I struggled at times with the huge additional pressures and demands that have been placed on single-handed GP practices and I felt I was getting no support from the HSE.”
In a notice to her patients following her resignation, Dr Sweeney said in the past two years at Ardara Health Centre, the post of GP assistant, GP partner “and my post as principal GP have been offered to 11 doctors, nationally and internationally.
They all showed genuine interest in the practice but were unwilling to accept the demands of a single-handed rural GP practice.
“In the past five years, there have been two occasions when I found I could not continue without a period away from work for my own wellbeing.
“On these occasions, it was up to me to provide my own cover. I relied on agency locum doctors to run the practice.”
She added: “At some point you have got to go. I am not unhappy with the job, I am not ill but at some point I have to stop working. I absolutely enjoy going to work.
“It’s a privileged position to be in. You get to know people well especially when you have been here for such a long time. Despite the many bureaucracy and management issues, the day-to-day job is seeing people and doing your very best to help them. I have been here such a long time it is almost like sitting down and having a conversation with friends.
“I am going to miss colleagues and patients and seeing people on a daily basis. I want to say a heartfelt thanks to the patients and staff. People have been so nice with cards and gifts. They’ve been so generous.”
The Ardara Medical Centre was located in a premises adjacent to the Post Office on Main Street (Nurse Scanlon’s) before moving to its present location at Portnoo Road more than 25 years ago.
“As a single-handed GP, I wanted to relocate to a premises big enough where I could have a practice nurse to help keep me on my toes while I also wanted to be a trainer with younger doctors helping me maintain my skill levels,” she explained.
Dr Sweeney wanted to be a GP in Ireland before she had even started medical school after watching a film as a child called Le Taxi Mauve.
“In the film, Fred Astaire played a mad GP who was in a purple taxi somewhere in the west coast of Ireland and there was a thatched cottage. I can’t remember the story but basically it looked lovely and I liked the idea of being a GP in the west coast of Ireland and I thought it would be my dream job!
“As a second year student in France I went hitch-hiking in Ireland during the summer and landed in Galway. The following year (1984) I arrived at Letterkenny Hospital and asked if I could stay for six months – that was before erasmus – and I was told to go and talk to Tom Margey, the administrator, who said it was okay.
“I thought six months in the winter time in Donegal with all the wind and the rain would cure my love for Ireland but it didn’t work. Then in December 1984 I met John (Sweeney) at a party. It was Ireland, before John Sweeney, that I fell in love with,” she laughed.
By now a fourth year medical student, the French authorities allowed Mireille to continue her studies in Ireland, returning home to the south of France to sit her exams. Having completed her GP training in France, she applied for jobs in Ireland and came back to Donegal and soon found herself living in the cottage of her dreams in Lettermacaward.
After working in Letterkenny for two years, Dr Sweeney took up employment in Dungloe before joining Dr Michael Cooke in Glenties in 1993 and then Ardara, replacing Dr McNamara two years later.
“At that stage there was only one woman GP, Dr Bonar Scally in Letterkenny, in the county and I thought that job (in Ardara) was going to a man before getting a phone call to say I had the job. The rest, as they say, is history,” Dr Sweeney smiled.
As she settles into a more relaxed lifestyle, Dr Sweeney, a keen sea swimmer, can be found in the waters around Portnoo most mornings shortly before 8am. She has also started attending pilates classes in Ardara.
“I know it’s such a cliche but I don’t know where I found the time to fit in the work. I’m here in France at the moment but I’ve no real interest in travel. Narin beach with the swimmers is where I’m happiest,” she said.
“I enjoy cooking and I would like to walk and cycle a bit more but there’s no place like Donegal,” she added.
Mireille lives locally with her husband, John, and has four children, Eileen, Yann, Dominic and Lara and three grandchildren Jonah (3), Max (8 months) and Cormac (3 months).
Her replacement is Dr Charlie McManus, a native of Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim.
Related posts:
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)