| Description | Papers relating to the Macnamara family of Corofin, Country Clare, who provided four generations of dispensary doctors and general practitioners to their local community. The collection includes certificates, copies of 19th century medical lecture notes, medical history and biographical prose and verse.
A copy of John Lizars' A System of Anatomical Plates of the Human Body (Edinburgh, [1822-1826]) was donated with this collection, is has been catalogued in the library catalogue, reference #15191. |
| History | The first member of the Macnamara family to study medicine was Michael Macnamara (1806-1892). He established himself in practice in Corofin in 1826, before undertaking further medical training in Dublin. Michael Macnamara married Elizabeth Unthank in 1846, and the couple had fifteen children. Of these children six sons followed their father into medicine. The eldest, George Unthank Macnamara, worked as a general practitioner in Corofin, while his five brothers joined the Royal Army Medical Corps or Indian Medical Service. A cousin of these men, Henry O'Flanagan, also practiced medicine in County Clare.
George Unthank Macnamara (1849-1919) married Jane Moran in 1891. 18 years earlier, as a newly qualifed doctor, he delivered the baby who would grow up to be his wife. George and Jane also had a large family, with their eldest son Donough Wheeler Macnamara (1893-1970) following his father into medicine. On the death of George Unthank in 1919, the newly qualified Donough returned to Corofin to take over his father's practice. Two of Donough's sons, Michael (1924-1997) and Maccon (b.1936) qualified as doctors, Maccon carried on the family practice following his father's retirement in 1966. On Maccon's retirement in 2006 an unbroken chain of 180 years of medical provision by the Macnamara family to the citizens of Corofin came to an end. |