Joseph McEvoy

Joseph McEvoy benefited from the 1948 Education Act: he was accepted into St Malachy’s College Belfast, where he excelled as a student. In 1953, at age 16, he was accepted by the faculty of medicine at Queens University and became an outstanding undergraduate student. He graduated with first class honours in 1959.

He worked as house officer in the Mater Hospital Belfast and subsequently in the Royal Victoria Hospital, where his principal mentor was Professor Graham Bull, who encouraged an interest in nephrology.

In 1967 he was appointed consultant nephrologist and senior lecturer in medicine in the Belfast City and Royal Victoria Hospitals Belfast. He cofounded the Belfast City Hospital Renal unit with Dr Mollie McGeown, where they showed the efficacy and safety of low dose steroid therapy in the prevention of rejection. As a teacher he was renowned for his clinical skill, but also for his wit, storytelling, love of earthy jokes, and capacity to remember and recite limericks.

In 1975, with no end to the troubles in sight, like so many of the most talented in Northern Ireland, he emigrated, initially to New Zealand and then to the United States, spending his latter years in San Clemente, California.

He leaves three children.