Dorothy Stopford Price

Rebel Doctor

Dorothy Stopford Price was arguably the most instrumental individual in eradicating the TB epidemic within Ireland. She introduced BCG to its shores which, to this day, prevent children from catching tuberculosis. This illuminating biography uncovers the importance of her medical work and of occasionally controversial measures that placed her in opposition to one of the strongest voices in Ireland at the time the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. Prior to her trials and successes with the TB epidemic, her medical career and social standing determined a fascinating life story: born within the Protestant Ascendancy to an Anglo-Irish family and a guest of the under-secretary to the British Administration during the Easter Rising, she soon crossed a stark divide, developing an ardent republican outlook that led to her appointment as medical officer to a West Cork Flying Column of the IRA during the War of Independence. Her determination never ceased and in 1921 she channelled her energies towards eradicating TB in Ireland; at a time when the Irish medical profession looked to the United Kingdom for leadership, she taught herself German to access scientific literature at the fore of medical developments. Anne MacLellan s biography accounts for this provocative and indomitable life of an Irish woman frequently caught at the epicentre of Irish affairs.