How agreeable are you?
I think I’m very agreeable. And I score very high in agreeableness whenever those personality scores are done.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
Brendan. I’ve always liked it. My older brother was Diarmuid Donal. My father’s dad was Donal. The firstborn had to be called Donal, but he wasn’t, he was called Diarmuid. So when I arrived, I had to be called Donal, so that diplomatic relations could open up again in the family. Brendan is a random second name.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
Between Inchydoney and Kenmare. I love them both equally. Kenmare, because we’ve gone there since we were kids and the family roots are Kerry. And Inchydoney because it is rugged and west coast and the waves are amazing.
Describe yourself in three words
Dogged. Ambitious. Empathetic.
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When did you last get angry?
Yesterday. I don’t get angry often, but the positioning of Ronald McDonald House at the entrance to the new children’s hospital is something that I have not been able to shake off or get past. To allow branding outside the most expensive hospital ever built remains just incredible to me – that the first thing you would see when you arrive, and the last thing you see when you leave the children’s hospital is brand management for McDonald’s. I saw the Ronald McDonald House going up very quickly and very efficiently, with a different developer to the children’s hospital building it. We have an obesity epidemic that is driven by ultra-processed foods and this is advertising.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
All our kids’ home movies and plays from when they were aged two to 11.
What’s your strongest childhood memory?
I used to get really car sick as a kid. And I used to get my dad to blow smoke into the back seat because that helped me feel better. He’d be up in front of Tusla now. Whereas I thought it was an act of kindness back in the 70s. It just shows what we didn’t know.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order, and has this defined you?
I’m the middle of three. And I’m an absolute middle child. I have three girls now and you can see a middle child is a middle child. You’re definitely not the eldest, and you’re definitely not the youngest in terms of how you’re treated by your parents.
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I think it’s highly unlikely there was nothing before I landed on this planet. And it’s highly unlikely there’s nothing when I leave this planet. I think life continues in a different form, but we’ve no idea what that form is.
When were you happiest?
I’m happiest in the now. I’ve been really trying to continuously work on that. To get our patients to work on being in the now, and being happy in the now. It is hard not to look back on your youth and the youth of a thousand summers and think of the line “youth is wasted on the young”. You don’t appreciate it in your teens and 20s. And then you appreciate it later on.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
If it was my choice, it would be Steve Martin. I’m mad about him. If it was my wife’s choice it would be Colin Firth. And then she would play herself opposite him.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
A lot of people would come to me with suggestions around addressing obesity at population level, and I just haven’t had the opportunity to get back to them. That would be something I regret.
Have you any psychological quirks?
With balconies or ledges, I feel a compulsion to either throw myself off, or fall off. It’s an irrational psychological thing for sure.
In conversation with Jen Hogan
