Prof Fergus Shanahan: 'When words fail, art gives the sufferer a voice' 

A scientist who's well aware of the limits of science, the UCC microbiome expert is convinced about the healing power of art 

Professor Fergus Shanahan. Picture: Stephen Bean

A medical practitioner for 40 years, Fergus Shanahan says science can only tell us so much about disease. Professor of Medicine at UCC and scientist at APC Microbiome Ireland, Shanahan relies on the arts to understand what it feels like to be sick.

“Science doesn’t tell you about the lived experience of disease. The only way to understand that – and what it is to heal – is from stories people tell, which aren’t always written but expressed across all forms of art,” says Shanahan.