*The late PJ O’Driscoll at his veterinary practice in Summerhill, Ennis.
PJ O’DRISCOLL has been remembered as one of the “greatest veterinary surgeons in Ireland”.
O’Callaghans Mills native, PJ founded Summerhill Veterinary Clinic in 1970 after returning to live in Co Clare, the practice’s headquarters in Ennis saw him treat thousands of animals and receive several honours for his caring and dignified approach over a five decade career.
Huge crowds attended PJ’s reposal in Fahy Hall, Roslevan on Tuesday last, funeral mass at Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Ennis on Wednesday which was followed by a cremation service in Shannon Crematorium. He died peacefully surrounded by his loving family on January 25th in Milford Care Centre.
His devoting manner saw him earn numerous awards. In 2006, his caring for abandoned pets was honoured at the Pet Care Awards which were equated as the ‘animal Oscars’. He was praised on this occasion for his “unsung work” at the local animal shelter and for assisting pets belonging to the elderly and homeless. One client nominated PJ for his endless patience and good humour in dealing with his German shepherds who “would make Osama Bin Laden look like a social worker”.
Clare SPCA in 2013 honoured PJ’s long-standing service following his retirement with the then Chairperson of the ISPCA, Barbara Bent travelling to Ennis to make a special presentation to O’Driscoll. “I am delighted to receive this award but I am humbled at the same time. I don’t think I deserve any special treatment,” PJ said at the time. He first got involved with animal welfare in the 1980s because of the large amount of stray dogs on the streets. “There was an awful lot of wandering dogs back then around the town and people would be inclined to phone me up because there was no one else to collect them. Then the Clare SPCA was founded and more people became more interested in animal welfare. There is a much greater awareness now than there was then,” he recalled.
He may have been born on the shortest day of the year in June 1939 but PJ’s manner in everything he did was anything but short which ensured he made a lasting impression on those that met him, whether it was in a professional or personal capacity.
Born on the family farm in Silvergrove, he was the eldest of four children with Tommy, Noel and Noreen following soon after.
An early love of education was evident with PJ who began life as a boarder in St Flannan’s College at the age of twelve, the extra portions at the Ennis school led to him gaining a stone’s weight in a year. He completed his second-level education in 1958 and thoroughly enjoyed attending past pupil reunions in the decades that followed.
Determined to pursue a career with animals, PJ was accepted into veterinary college at University College Dublin, he took two years out to work on building sites in London in order to pay for his education at UCD. Life in London gave him a love for the Dance Hall scene, a passion he sustained when he moved to Dublin.
Upon returning to UCD, a clerical error with the alphabetical seating meant PJ was located with the Ds rather than the Os which resulted in him forming a lifelong friendship with two individuals in close proximity to him, namely Jim Donovan and Tom Dillon.
In 1965, he graduated from UCD and commenced employment with a veterinary practice in Tullamore, Co Offaly. On the local dance scene, he came across Enda Purcell, the daughter of a young pharmacist who had just returned from a year nursing in Boston. She was particularly impressed with PJ’s honesty and straight-forward approach while PJ knew within weeks of dating Enda that she would be his future wife, they did tie the knot in 1969 and moved to Tipperary but relocated to his native Clare where in 1970 PJ bought a local veterinary practice in Ennis from Dan Fitzpatrick, he and Enda settled into family life in Roslevan with their three children Seán, Miriam and Barry.
Initially the focus of Summerhill was on large animals but as society changed, PJ began to work more and more with small animals. All the while, he gained immense enjoyment from dealing with people and animals.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, county dog warden Frankie Coote recalled that PJ was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Clare SPCA in the 1980s which was affiliated to the ISPCA. “They were responsible for getting the pound built on the Gort Rd in Ennis and there is a plaque out there commemorating the work of PJ, Patsy Foudy, Caroline Lillis and others, Andy McDonald was the inspector at the time and there was nowhere for stray or abandoned dogs”.
Coote spoke of O’Driscoll’s incredibly generous nature, “he never took a bill from us, we’d go down and give him £500 of a cheque at Christmas but he’d come back with £1000 to us, it was embarrassing really because he never took anything for all the work he did”. He added, “from all my time attending his practice and I’d have been there a good bit down through the years, when anyone entered his surgery, he never spoke about money, he worried about the animal and treated the animal, the money was irrelevant, he was mainly focused on the animal”.
According to Frankie, “PJ was one of the greatest veterinary surgeons in Ireland. He was of the old brigade, himself and the late Paddy Hassett, the animals came first with them, they went out day or night, I often called to the house in Roslevan at 2am, banged the window and he was out”.
Frankie told The Clare Echo, “he was one of the people when you met and were in his company you actually felt special, he had this way of making you feel the best person in the room and very special, you could be low or you could be down but after meeting PJ you’d go away thinking you were number one, he’d belittle nobody or put down nobody, he never looked down on anyone but I must say his downfall was Clare hurling, he could keep you there till 11pm talking about that. He was very proud of his family, he was a big family man, he was very proud of them and his grand-children, his wife Enda was lovely and would always have a cup of tea and a scone for me when I called”.
At the funeral mass, gifts brought before the altar included a wedding photograph of PJ and Enda, his stethoscope, his people of the year award from 2016, a family photograph, a copy of The Irish Independent, a match programme and a bar of chocolate. The gifts were brought forward by family, friends and colleagues.
Ciarán O’Driscoll, PJ’s grandson explained the meaning of each symbol, the wedding photograph showed PJ and Enda’s “enduring love and unity over the past fifty six years, their bond has not only shaped their own lives but has also created a legacy of kindness, wisdom and generosity that lives on through their children and grandchildren”. The stethoscope marked his cherished five decade career “guided by his deep compassion for animals and their owners, PJ often spoke warmly of the remarkable people he met, many of whom became lifelong friends, he also treasured the symbol gestures of kindness such as a cup of tea or a slice of brown bread”.
Recognition by the parish of Ennis as person of the year in 2016 “brought PJ immense pride and joy,” Ciarán recalled. He added, “Those who regularly accompanied PJ to GAA matches knew a match programme and chocolate were essential to his enjoyment of the game as the hurley is to the player, like the players PJ was generally armed with a few spares to see his teammates through the full seventy minutes”. Reading The Irish Independent was part of his daily routine as he maintained his appetite for current affairs, The Clare Champion and in later years The Clare Echo were weekly fixtures in his Roslevan home.
Addressing the congregation in the Cathedreal, PJ’s son Barry noted, “We gather here today with a heavy heart but also with immense gratitude to celebrate the extraordinary life of my father PJ, he was so many things to all of us, a beloved veterinary surgeon, a devoted father, a proud supporter of Clare hurling, a gentleman in every sense of the word but more than anything he was a man of integrity, kindness and dedication who enriched the lives of so many people who were fortunate enough to know him”. He said, “He was a man of compassion, creativity and above all heart”.
Work ethic shown by PJ after acquiring Summerhill Veterinary Practice was inspiring, Barry recalled. “PJ worked extremely hard to build up the practice, during spring time he was the busiest as this is when cows calved and when he could get called out of bed during the night to do a calving, sometimes twice and he would then have to go, get up and do a full day’s work the next day, I still don’t know how he found the energy but he was not alone, with Mam as his right-hand woman and with the many people he met along the way likes James Hannon his original partner and back in the office Phil Lynch and Veronica McMahon ran the administration, they were later joined by Frances Browne, Ian Brassil and Matt Egan who helped him to build a livelihood out of a job he loved so much”.
He continued, “Dad gained an enormous amount of satisfaction from both his large animal and small animal work, the hours were long and demanding but he took a huge amount of lifelong pleasure from the relationships he built up with clients along the way, relationships he cherished and kept after he sold the practice to Owen O’Connor and David Hegarty, taking a well-earned part-time retirement, I say part-time because as long as my father could walk he was working and even after retirement he continued to work in the local abattoir as a veterinary inspector”.
Lifelong friends were also made through the organisations he was involved in such as Ennis Lions Club where he formerly served as President. Clare hurling was another big passion of O’Driscolls, “Dad was a dedicated Clare hurling supporter right till the end, he loved nothing more than Clare hurling, as long as I can remember my Dad going to matches he loved to follow the saffron and blue around the country wearing his infamous outfit of a Clare supporters hat on his head and a radio earpiece in his ear, he found immense joy in the games and I believe he cherished even more the company of those he shared them with, his brother and best friend Noel and Jimmy McDonagh, in his later years his grandchildren”.
Barry said, “In 2008 my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a cruel illness which slowly took its toll, the hardship never took away his spirit, he met every challenge with resilience, dignity and a quite determination, never allowing it to define him, though his body slowed his mind remained as sharp as ever, his wit, wisdom and love for family and friends never faded, he still followed Clare hurling with a passion and joined extraordinary organisations. Parkinsons may have tested him but it never got the better of him, right until the end he was the man we knew and loved, strong, sharp and full of heart, his strength of character will be with us always. Dad died peacefully surrounded by his family as he would have wanted. In our mourning, there is also room for celebration of a life well lived and the memory of a courageous man who dedicated his life to helping people, animals and his community”.
Doora/Barefield parish priest, Fr Tom Fitzpatrick referenced the thousands of lives touched by PJ during his distinguished career. “His work as a vet from what I know and what people have been saying over the last few days wasn’t just a job for him, it was truly a calling, it was truly a vocation, it was a special calling, a man with a profound love for all of God’s creatures, I know for so many years he was a familiar sight on the roads throughout Co Clare, he was known far and wide, the tributes that people have been paying to him are just mind-blowing, the crowds that were with us at the reposal in Roslevan just say it all, he was a man who travelled the county and got to know so many people from his encounters, I’ve no doubt at all but in answering the many calls that came from farms and households, some of them at ungodly hours, he was a man who gently got up and answered those calls in the early hours of this morning, travelling long distance at times but always answering with a sense of duty and a generosity, that generosity and sense of duty is something that cannot be measured by anybody, it was between himself and the people.
“He expressed and exuded genuine compassion in his professional life which made him a trusted friend to so many people all along the way and for that we are so grateful whether it was bringing comfort to a farmer or special care to beloved pets PJ treated every call with utmost care and concern,” Fr Fitzpatrick said.
He added, “He was a passionate GAA man, he followed Clare through so many decades all over the country, especially in the lean times when things weren’t going well for Clare in the seventies and eighties, of course then it happened in the nineties with the first win in 1995, PJ with his friends travelled to all those matches. After the win in 1995, PJ decided that this was very special and that it might not happen for years again, he decided to take a break for a week, he needed to celebrate and it was a great cause of celebration as we can recall”.
PJ made a difference, Fr Fitzpatrick outlined. “Unfortunately the last number of years weren’t too kind to him, he had a number of health issues but that didn’t hold him back, he remained who he was, he was determined to maintain a dignified normality through it all for as long as possible, he managed to do exactly that to the very end, he breathed his life in Milford knowing he made a difference, he must have known he made a difference because he did and that his legacy would live on long after him through his family and the many people he encountered along the way”.
PJ is survived by his beloved wife Enda, loving children Barry, Seán and Miriam, daughters-in-law Breda and Sarah, grandchildren Dónal, Ciarán, Éabha and Seán Óg, brothers Noel and Tommy, sister Noreen, brothers-in-law Des and Pat, sisters-in-law Anne and Colette, nephews, nieces, cousins, extended family, friends and neighbours.
