Newmarket's Dr Bart Daly: 'Football is the best way to relax from the hospital'

Newmarket defender Daly is a consultant geriatrician in Cork University Hospital and St Finbarr’s Hospital

Newmarket’s Kevin O’Sullivan and Bart Daly after defeating Kanturk in the Bon Secours Cork PIFC final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this month. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

A couple of Sundays ago Newmarket beat Kanturk to the finishing tape in the Cork county intermediate football final, a terrific conclusion to a closely fought game.

It was the kind of local derby which unspools a dozen narratives before, during and after the proceedings. Take Newmarket wing-back Bart Daly, who added to the county premier intermediate medal he collected back in 2011.

“It’s interesting to see the contrast in your own lifestyle. When we won the intermediate back in 2011, that time you’d put a lot on hold for football, but now — I’m 33 now and I’m married with a family, so the circumstances are pretty different.”

And not just in terms of family. Dr Bart Daly is a consultant geriatrician in Cork University Hospital and St Finbarr’s Hospital, with all the attendant responsibilities that entails.

“There is an element of on-call for stroke and so on, there could be emergency calls involved.

“For instance, I missed the league final this year against Castlehaven because I was on call that weekend, but generally speaking I have a fair idea of when I’m on nights and so on, and I can work around that.

“My routine is fairly predictable now, whereas when I was in training I could have been called in at any time, and for a while I was in Dublin as well, which complicated things. Now I’m in Cork and it’s a lot more predictable, as I say, it’s just a matter of being a bit disciplined. When I’m in work I’m in work and when I’m training I’m training.

“Everyone understands, too. The department is a good one and the people would be understanding.”

The combination of football and medicine can be a challenge, but it can also be a welcome distraction, with one helping the other.

“Absolutely — I was only saying recently that going back to that first county final in 2011 I was nearly living and breathing football for the three weeks running into that game. For this one it was very different, it was trying to find a balance between everything, with family life a big consideration.” 

Disclosure: Daly’s wife understands the medical imperative, he says. Caroline Burke is a GP trainee.

But she’s also a footballer.

“She won a county herself with Naomh Fionnbarra last year — they’re an amalgamation of Ballingeary and Inchigeelagh — just six months after having a baby. She and her family were cheering for Uibh Laoire in the intermediate final against Mitchelstown when that was played before we played Kanturk in our final.”

Daly himself sees the benefit of football and medicine intersecting: “Balancing them isn’t a complaint — for me the football is the best way to relax.

“When I’m training or playing a match I’m not thinking about the hospital, and if we lose a match that won’t bother people in the hospital.

“And the opposite is true, too — if the hospital is extra busy for some reason then nobody down in the field in Newmarket is thinking or talking about it. The bigger challenge is balancing family life, really.

“It can help as well. I’m dealing with people over 65 and it’s one of the best things you could be chatting to people about, the football - whether it’s about Newmarket or Duhallow or Cork, it’s always a subject that can put people at their ease.”

With the first of those teams Daly’s day job isn’t much of a help.

“There’d be a bit of slagging with the lads in Newmarket, I’d often tell them that if they had a stroke I’d be some use to them, but a torn hamstring would be bit outside my day-to-day work.

“My Dad’s a GP in Newmarket and he’s been involved with the club for years so he’d handle that end of things.

“It was great to win the final a couple of weeks ago, it really ties everything together. We’d been knocking on the door for a few years, and if you don’t win it can be disappointing, whereas a win like that really seals the bond between everybody who’s involved.

“Winning in 2011 was great, obviously, but if you have a few years of getting close without actually getting over the line then it can be hard on the group. Winning it justified a lot of the hard work we put in over the years.

“Playing Corofin this weekend is another challenge, and one we’ll have to readjust mentally for, but we’ll get focused back in for that too.” The hobby and the job combine in another way also.

“One part of my job is a rapid-access multi-disciplinary clinic for older patients in St Finbarr’s.

“Geriatricians from both CUH and the Mercy Hospital run clinics with medical, nursing and therapy input on the same day which is a great benefit to patients. It’s a really rewarding clinic to be involved in and working with a team is something I really enjoy.

“More recently, with the effect of the huge efforts people have taken in response to the Covid pandemic, increasing numbers of our patients are referred with a decline in mobility, social isolation and loss of confidence.

“Given my own background in sport, I’ve a real interest in the proven benefits of exercise and regular social interaction. We’re looking to increase our referrals to group exercise classes by linking with a number of excellent programs such as Fit for the Future, which already available to people in Cork/Kerry.

“As a team we hope to collaborate with Cork Sports partnership and Physiotherapists Liz O’Sullivan and Elaine O’Donoghue who organise some of these programs. I’m hoping the GAA connection will help, with former Dublin footballer Dr Noel McCaffreys and our own Dr Con Murphy’s involvement.

“Noel and his team developed the very successful ExWell programme which runs group exercise classes in collaboration with hospitals such as Tallaght where I worked previously and saw the benefits and enjoyment for patients.

“In future it’s something I’m excited about, to link all interested patients we see both in hospital and in our clinics to group classes aimed at ageing with confidence.” Working away, on the field and off.