XXXV Waterford Surgical October MeetingSaturday, 10 October 2026

Welcome to the XXXV Waterford Surgical October Meeting 

On behalf of my colleagues on the organising committee, Professor Fiachra Cooke, Mr Peter McCullough, Professor Padraig Daly, Ms Niamh Foley, Mr Seamus Murphy, Professor Ruairi MacNiocaill, Professor May Cleary, Mr Daniel Hechtl, Dr Éibhleann Connaughton, Ms Aisling Brett, Ms Vicki O’Brien and Ms Jennie O’Leary, it is my privilege to formally welcome you to this year’s XXXV Waterford Surgical October Meeting. This gathering represents an important opportunity for academic collaboration and professional reflection. The theme of this year‘s meeting is “Service Developments; Adapting to Modern Practices”.

I am deeply appreciative of your presence and your commitment to advancing the science and practice of surgery. This meeting brings together leaders, innovators, and scholars from across the surgical disciplines. Such breadth of expertise strengthens the intellectual foundation upon which academic surgery continues to grow.

This year’s Waterford Surgical October Meeting focus is on the exciting developments in surgery that is currently happening on our doorstep and beyond. The meeting will explore modern service delivery across many surgical disciplines and technological advancements, including how this is modernising research and training. Advances in sub speciality care are rapidly reshaping clinical decision making. In addition, technological advancements including robotics and artificial intelligence offer huge opportunities in clinical care, training and research. These innovations offer remarkable potential to improve patient outcomes. I am very proud and delighted to announce an extremely distinguished faculty that will share their knowledge and wisdom in these areas. The speakers are truly world class and their perspectives are sure to inspire and innovate those of us in attendance.

Furthermore, the meeting places a huge focus on the tremendous endeavour of research amongst us. It is an honour to be exposed to your research that exemplifies a substantial investment of time, skill, and scholarly dedication. I extend sincere thanks to all presenters who have chosen to share their work with us. Academic surgery relies on the open exchange of ideas, and this meeting provides an ideal forum for that exchange. This is a setting in which established experts and early career researchers can interact meaningfully. It is also a setting in which new collaborations may be formed and existing partnerships strengthened. I encourage all attendees to participate actively in the dialogue that follows each session. I have no doubt that your work enriches all of our collective understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing modern surgery.

One of the huge highlights of this meeting is the Gordon Watson lecture which will be delivered by Mr William Wallace, Consultant General & Colorectal Surgeon, Belfast Health & Social Care trust. It is a huge honour and pleasure to welcome Mr Wallace. We are fortunate and look forward to hear him share his experience, wisdom and insights into the lessons he has learned as an innovator throughout his exemplary career spent working with intestinal failure and building an intestinal failure unit. This promises to be one of the highlights of the meeting.

To this end, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the XXXV Waterford Surgical October Meeting. I wish you a rewarding and intellectually enriching day.

Professor Peter M. Neary MB, MScLHPE, MA, MD, FRCS(Colorectal)

Professor & Inaugural Chair of Surgical Oncology
Academic Head of Department
Consultant General & Colorectal Surgeon
University Hospital Waterford/University College Cork

Dr Sarah Cooney

Biography

Dr Sarah Cooney is a Clinical Research Fellow at University College London, having recently completed Basic Specialist Training in Medicine at St James’s Hospital, Dublin. She graduated from University College Dublin and has a strong interest in Obesity, Metabolic Medicine and Clinical Research, with research experience exploring the metabolic and nutritional consequences of upper gastrointestinal surgery.

Dr Czara Kennedy

Biography

Czara Kennedy is a General and Upper GI Surgery Specialist Registrar (SpR) currently working in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. She is currently a PhD candidate at University College Dublin (UCD) under the supervision of Professor Helen Heneghan, focusing her research on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention and Direct Oral Anticoagulant (DOAC) absorption following metabolic bariatric surgery. She also holds a Master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Research from UCD and recently completed her Fellowship examinations.

With a multidisciplinary clinical background as a qualified dietitian, Dr. Kennedy is heavily involved in surgical leadership, education, and trial management. She serves as the Vice Chair of the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative (ISRC) and has held prominent committee roles, including President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Irish surgical training group. 
    

Mr Emmet Andrews

Biography

Originally from Dublin and educated in Belvedere College, Emmet graduated from University College Dublin in 1994. He represented UCD in rugby and boxing.  After internship he completed the Basic Surgical Training Scheme in Belfast, acquiring the FRCS (Eng) and FRCSI. Emmet returned to Ireland for further surgical training followed by full time research in Cork University Hospital where he completed an MD in UCC. Following Higher Surgical Training with rotations in Galway, Cork and Dublin, Emmet undertook a Fellowship in Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery in Melbourne Australia. He returned to replace Professor Liam Kirwan in 2010 as Consultant General & Colorectal Surgeon in CUH and Senior Lecturer in Surgery in UCC. His special interests are robotic and laparoscopic colorectal surgery (including familial and screen detected cancers), pelvic floor disorders (faecal incontinence, prolapse), and laparoscopic general surgery including inguinal and incisional hernia repair. Emmet also provides a service in elective general paediatric surgery in Cork University Hospital. He lives in Cork city with his wife and three children.

Dr Dara O’Keeffe

Biography

Dr (Ms) Dara O’Keeffe, MB BCh BAO BMedSc MRCS MHPE DipHCM

• Director of Surgical Simulation and Skills, National Surgical and Clinical Skills Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Dr Dara O’Keeffe trained in surgery for eight years before entering healthcare education in 2006. At the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, she was instrumental in establishing the first mandatory programme in Human Factors for trainees in Surgery and Emergency Medicine. There she also designed and implemented national assessments in technical and non-technical skills, before moving to a role in Simulation-based Learning at the Brigham and Women’s hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. She returned to RCSI in 2015 where she has continued to develop high-fidelity simulation programmes for postgraduate trainees across multiple specialties and disciplines. She has a master of Health Professions Education from the University of Chicago and a diploma in Healthcare Management. She was a founder member of the Irish Association for Simulation and is currently Chair of the Accreditation Review Board of NASCE (Network of Accredited Skills Centres in Europe). In this role she is responsible for reviewing and accrediting simulation centres internationally. She is also a committee member of ICOSET, the International Collaborative for Surgical Education and Training. Her areas of specialisation and research include Human Factors, faculty development and using simulation for assessment.

Professor Arnie Hill

Biography

Professor Arnold Hill is one of Ireland’s most distinguished general and breast surgeons, serving as Professor and Chair of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and as a Consultant General and Breast Surgeon at Beaumont Hospital. He graduated from University College Dublin in 1988 and completed his basic surgical training in Dublin, before undertaking his further training in London. He then pursued a two-year research and clinical fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Centre in the United States. Before returning to Ireland to take up his consultant appointment, Professor Hill completed a Clinical Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. This fellowship established his expertise in the surgical management of breast cancer and shaped his career-long commitment to integrating high-quality translational research with clinical practice.

Professor Hill is integral to the Beaumont Hospital Breast Service, which diagnoses and treats over 500 newly diagnosed breast cancers each year. His interests focus on the management of breast cancer, and he has been a central figure in the development of the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre as a nationally and internationally recognised institution. He is the National Advisor for Surgical Oncology to the National Cancer Control Programme and is the Chairman of Breast Cancer Ireland, Ireland’s leading voluntary organisation funding breast cancer research.

He has supervised over 50 research fellows through their higher degrees. In close collaboration with Professor Leonie Young and the RCSI Endocrine Oncology Research Group, Professor Hill has co-led a national clinical study, the Proteomics and Molecular Heterogeneity study, established in 2006, registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and sponsored by Cancer Trials Ireland, which has recruited more than 4,000 patients. This study underpins cutting-edge research into breast cancer metastasis, including brain metastasis, for which there remain few targeted therapeutic options.

Professor Hill was instrumental in establishing Ireland’s first National Breast Cancer Tissue BioResource, bringing together leading clinicians and scientists with Cancer Trials Ireland to enable more personalised and targeted treatments. “As a small country we recognise the need for collaborative research in order to gain maximum benefit,” he has said. “This initiative will bring together leading national clinicians and scientists, enabling speedier discoveries and ultimately more effective and personalised treatments for patients.”
Beyond his clinical and research roles, Professor Hill has made a significant impact on surgical education as Dean of Medical Programmes at RCSI. He has championed a new innovative curriculum in RCSI, known as the THEP Program. His work bridges the traditional gap between bench and bedside, and he remains a mentor to a generation of surgical trainees at Beaumont Hospital.

More recently, Professor Hill has launched the first Irish robotic mastectomy program, allowing breast cancer patients and mutation carriers to undergo mastectomy and axillary surgery through a concealed incision and using a minimally invasive approach. With 50 robotic mastectomies performed to date, this innovative approach offers extraordinary benefits for women by allowing them to preserve their skin and nipple-areolar complex and enhancing postoperative sensation. Women no longer need to suffer the psychological trauma of a mastectomy when they can now preserve their own skin and nipple areolar complex of their breast, while benefiting from an abdominoplasty for their reconstruction. The procedure is entirely performed through a 4cm axillary incision.