Dr Ethel Sheila Kenny
Professor from 1974 to 1978
Maiden name: Wilson
24/08/1909 to 24/05/1990
Place of birth: Boltown House, Kells, Co. Meath. Ireland
Nationality: Irish
CRN: 557612
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Sheila was the eldest of five siblings and was home schooled for a number of years before being sent as a border to the Hall School, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, County Dublin in 1922 . Whilst there she received private tuition in Latin, Trigonometry and Mechanics which were not taught at her school but which were necessary to sit the Senior Cambridge Examination (which was the same as the General Certificate of Education). She passed the Cambridge Examination in 1928 and enrolled in medicine at Trinity College Dublin that year. She received her BA in 1931. |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MB BCh BAO Trinity College Dublin 1933 |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
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Year of Fellowship |
1953 |
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Other qualification(s) |
DA. 1942. Conjoint Diploma in Anaesthetics of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
She was appointed as anaesthetist to the Adelaide Hospital, Peter Street, Dublin in 1934. She also worked in a number of nearby hospitals, the National Children’s Hospital, Harcourt Street, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Adelaide Road and the Rotunda Hospital (all three of these are in Dublin). She had a busy private practice at a number of nursing homes in the area: the Portobello, the Burlington and the Herbert as well as Mount Carmel Hospital (which opened in 1958).
Professional interests and activities
Sheila Kenny was a member of the first board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists , Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland which was convened in 1959 and was formally inaugurated in 1960. She was the only female member at that time and was a foundation fellow of the new faculty. She was elected Vice-Dean in 1964 for a period of three years but was never elected as Dean. (No woman was ever elected Dean in the 28 years of the Faculty’s existence).
She was an innovator and had an abiding interest in blood gas analysis and ventilation. She was involved in the development of the “Adelaide ventilator” in 1958, and a few years later she established a four-bedded intensive care unit across the corridor from the operating theatre in what had formerly been the children’s ward. This was one of the first in Ireland. She later set up a blood gas laboratory beside both the ICU and theatre which was innovative for the Sheila Kenny was a member of the first board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists , Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland which was convened in 1959 and was formally inaugurated in 1960. She was the only female member at that time and was a foundation fellow of the new faculty. She was elected Vice-Dean in 1964 for a period of three years but was never elected as Dean. (No woman was ever elected Dean in the 28 years of the Faculty’s existence).
She was an innovator and had an abiding interest in blood gas analysis and ventilation. She was involved in the development of the “Adelaide ventilator” in 1958, and a few years later she established a four-bedded intensive care unit across the corridor from the operating theatre in what had formerly been the children’s ward. This was one of the first in Ireland. She later set up a blood gas laboratory beside both the ICU and theatre which was innovative for the time. In 1967 she published the “Adelaide Ventilation Guide” which correlated ventilation requirements to body weight.
She was a member of council of the Section of Anaesthetics, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland and was elected president in 1960. Her presidential address ”In somno securitas” was a superb summary of the state of knowledge at the time on ventilation and blood gases.
Other biographical information
Sheila Wilson married Hamilton Kenny in 1934 and they lived on Eglinton Road on the south side of Dublin for the first thirty years of their married life. They had two daughters: Ann-Elizabeth and Hilary. Her interests were golf, hunting and gardening. She spoke “verbally understood” French. She was also involved in developing an area of waste ground near the hospital which became the “Adelaide Garden”. This was formally opened in 1971 by Dr Simms, the Church of Ireland Primate of all Ireland. The Sheila Kenny room was inaugurated in her honour in 2012 in the operating theatre suite at Tallaght Hospital (which replaced the Adelaide hospital in 1998).
Author and sources
Author:
Dr Joseph A Tracey
Sources and comments:
This is based on a biography of Sheila Kenny by the author in “Safety as we Watch” published by Wordwell, 2022. Also, information given to the author by some of Sheila Kenny’s colleagues, and references from her published works. Photograph by kind permission of Sheila Kenny's daughter, Elizabeth Benson.