ON THE COUCH: Ross Duffyis the head of the Irish office of international emergency medical aid agency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Family/personal:
Single.
Which living person do you most admire and why?
Suleiman Mohamed Adam, an MSF colleague from Darfur,
who for the past five years has witnessed unimaginable suffering
and misery in Darfur. Suleiman has lost family, friends and
colleagues to the continued violence and most recently saw his two
young nephews killed and own son disfigured by a landmine.
Despite all this Suleiman, with his Sudanese colleagues, continues to work in MSF's Darfur hospital with unwavering commitment and dedication, motivated by the task of ensuring that his own people, at the very least, have access to basic healthcare. He is a very inspiring man.
What do you regard as the top three problems facing
Ireland's health system?
Poor availability and quality of services,
inequality of access and too much talk, not enough action.
Ironically, these issues facing Ireland, where life expectancy is
78, are some of the same issues in developing countries such as the
Central African Republic. However, life expectancy there is only
43.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Martin Luther King Jr, Billy Connolly, Noam Chomsky,
Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, The Buddha and Larry David.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
That I'm put out of a job because universal access
to healthcare has been achieved and MSF's services are no longer
required.
What trait do you most value in your friends?
Integrity, empathy and a sense of humour.
What is your most unhealthy habit?
Working in war zones.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Paying rent in Dublin.
How do you relax?
By spending time in Derrynane, Co Kerry with
friends.
Do you use alternative/ complementary medicines or
therapies?
Meditation, aromatherapy and herbal remedies.
What is your earliest memory?
Aged four walking around my housing estate in
Blackrock showing off to my neighbours, with great pride, that I
had just had three fingers stitched back together.
What talent would you most like to have?
I'd like to have a better aptitude for
languages.
What is your most treasured possession?
My health and my family.
What other career might you have chosen?
Whenever I'm in Africa, not a day goes by where I
don't wish I had studied medicine. To have life-saving medical
knowledge is an incredible privilege.
What books or films have inspired you?
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, by Gil Courtemanche,
Ethics in an Age of Self Interestby Peter Singer and
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dyingby Sogyal
Rinpoche.
In conversation with Fiona Tyrrell