Date of Birth: 3rd September 1923

Place of Birth: No.2 Old Pound, Wexford

Date Interviewed: 10th May 2011

Summary: Des McDonald grew up in Kilmuckridge where his father was a headmaster and his mother a headmistress. His parents owned the seventh car in Ireland. His father also built a radio which attracted a crowd of “two to three thousand” to the house to hear this new invention. Des shares in great detail his memories of the Kilmuckridge – including the introduction in the 1930s of a nudist colony! On his seventeenth birthday he became the youngest ever student of medicine at UCD. After he qualified as a doctor he moved to England. His first job was in Rotherham near Sheffield. The people there were nice but very depressed. The pub was their only outlet and the suicide rate was high. When he asked his wife what she wanted for her birthday she said she wanted to “get out of that goddamn town”. They then moved to Essex. Des goes on to talk about the very successful medical practice he built up over the years. He retired in 1988. He attributes his good health to a combination of exercise and a proper diet.