Dr Gabriel Scally: Public Health & Covid-19

This is a fascinating interview with one of the U.K. and Republic of Ireland’s leading public health experts. Dr Gabriel Scally has been a regular commentator on News channels for the last year, often taking the British government to task for their failings in their dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. He has been serving society as a doctor for over 40 years with public health being his main focus in that time.

In this interview we chart his life from growing up on the Falls Road in West Belfast during the civil rights movement and early days of the Troubles, his travels as a young man to Chile, Angola and Burkina Faso, and some of the many achievements in his career. It is fascinating and heart wrenching to hear him describe his work on the failings in the Republic of Ireland on the Cervical Check programme. What comes shining through in this episode is Dr Scally’s fierce determination to advocate for those most marginalised in society and to advocate for Public Health policies that will benefit all of those in society.

We also touch on the subject of abortion. This is obviously one of the most divisive subjects in many Western societies. I was keen to create a space for someone like Dr Scally to articulate what would have motivated him in his advocacy for reproductive rights in Northern Ireland. As we try to build a broad catalogue of podcasts dealing with all of life, this episode adds a new dimension.