Dr William (Bill) Casey – an appreciation

Dr Bill Casey passed away peacefully after a short illness and will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
William Bernard (Bill) Casey pass-ed away peacefully on 17 April 2008. A native of Clifden, Co Galway, Bill was the only son of local GP Dr Joseph Casey and was the third generation of his family to graduate from the Royal College of Surgeons.
As a young doctor, he witnessed at first hand the ravages of TB, typhus, typhoid and diphtheria in Connemara.

A plaque on Ballyconneely beach commemorates his role in rescuing a number of American World War II fighter pilots suffering from exposure in the Atlantic. Bill was appointed as dispensary doctor to the seaside village of Duncannon, New Ross, Co. Wexford in the late 1950s.
At that time, there was no such thing as an out of hours co-operative, and support from hospitals and other services – apart from the local public health nurse – was minimal.
His contract essentially was that he would live in the area and provide medical services to those living in Duncannon and the surrounding townlands. He worked in a rota with his colleague at Fethard-on-Sea and they covered each other for weekends and for holidays.
His approach to practice was patient centred. The patient was what mattered. People called to his surgery and the door was always open, more or less at all hours. You went in the door and down a corridor. The second door on the left was his consulting room and the third door was the kitchen. If he was not in his consulting room, he could be found in the kitchen or the garden, which he loved.
You told him you had arrived and he said he would see you shortly and so he would.
His way with children had become legendary in the area. Much of his success with children centred around the fact that he had a mouse (or it was supposed to have been a mouse) in his pocket.
Few have ever actually seen that mouse, but many think that they did. In short, children loved him and a trip to his surgery was regarded as a treat. He was an excellent diagnostician and his patients after his death recounted endless unusual and some indeed quite obscure diagnoses that were eventually made, mainly because of his ability to decide something just wasn’t quite right in someone he knew very well.
He was a keen sportsman and frequently went shooting with his GP colleague from the neighbouring practice. These shooting expeditions would involve getting up early and much fuss over dogs and sometimes were short lived, as on occasion a runner would have been sent to inform one or other of the doctors that an ill patient had arrived and needed to be seen urgently.
He was a keen fisherman and loved to fish the rivers in the west of Ireland. He attended the Listowel races annually. His patients tell me that he never bought a race card but avidly studied the form in the newspaper before the event and, on the day, was an authority on every horse that ran. He liberally dispensed his advice on potential winners to anyone he met on the occasion.
Bill retired some 18 years or so ago. However, he stayed in practice and still, as he used to say himself, ‘saw a few at the house’ right up until the onset of his last illness a mere six weeks before he passed away.
Some of the older patients from the neighbouring practices who were nervous of the idea of dealing with an out of hours covering service would call on Bill for an opinion as to whether they needed to put in for a visit or not.
Needless to say, he dealt with many of these problems which never had to be seen by the out of hours services. In short, his patients greatly appreciated his dedication and cared deeply for this dignified gentleman, with many of them recounting stories about his fun-loving nature.
He was an excellent father and was very proud of the fact that his daughter Miriam followed in his footsteps, becoming the fourth generation of his family to graduate from the Royal College of Surgeons.
That his son Joseph lives and works in the area of Duncannon was also a source of great satisfaction and happiness to him.
His wife Sheila sadly misses him as a husband, whom she used to refer to as Willie. She was the one who answered the telephone and provided that essential link between him and the patients he cared for. We all say goodbye to an excellent family man, a superb general practitioner and a loyal colleague.
Ar dheis de go raibh anam.
— J.C.