Martin Feeley

After a brief spell as a rower Martin Feeley took up a career in medicine where he became one of the best vascular surgeons in Ireland. While studying at the University College Dublin (UCD) Feeley participated in rowing competitions where he was part of the eight crew that won a regatta in 1974. Two years later he was part of Ireland’s coxless four crew at the 1976 Montréal Olympics. Feeley later described the Olympic experience as a “disaster”, with the team finishing last-but-one.

Feeley graduated from UCD with a degree in medicine before earning the diploma of Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1979. He followed this with a master’s degree in surgery in 1985 at the National University of Ireland. Feeley spent many years as a consultant vascular surgeon at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, where he later became their clinical director. In 2015 he moved to the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group to take up the post of group clinical director. He resigned from the role in 2020 after he criticised the government’s plans around lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.