"The weight of compasion & other essays" Dublin, 2012 : cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Conway Institute, UCD, where he leads international scientific research into high blood presure. He is author of several highly regarded volumes: among them, The Beckett Country : Samuel Beckett's Ireland; Conscience and Conflict: A Biography of Sir Dominic Corrigan, 1802-1880; The Royal college of Surgeons, 1884-1984; An Illustrated History of Medicine in Ireland.