Rock band past helps Ronan heal musicians

Music and medicine have been so central to the life of Dr Ronan Kavanagh that it seemed to be a logical move for the consultant rheumatologist to open up the first clinic in the country to cater exclusively for musicians last year.

The Musicians’ Clinic, dealing with the pains and strains which come with playing an instrument for hours on end, has proved a huge hit with enthusiasts from all around the country who warm to Ronan because of his own history as a keyboard player in a rock band.

Once a month or so, Dr Kavanagh gives over his private practice at the Galway Clinic exclusively to musicians. Talking about his own love of playing helps patients to relax. Ronan was the keyboard player with rock band The Stunning for two and a half years in the late 1980s, but left to concentrate on his medical studies.

When they reached number one in the charts with Brewing Up a Storm in 1990, or headlined in front of a 30,000 crowd at the Féile festival in Thurles, he had the occasional pang of regret. But a time came when he just could not combine life on the road with his course in Medicine at UCG (now NUI Galway).

Ronan learned the piano as a youngster growing up in Taylor’s Hill. He studied music, alone, as a boarder at Castleknock College in Dublin and was delighted when Steve and Joe Wall invited him to be part of their new band in 1987.

“I was lucky enough to play in The Stunning with really, really gifted musicians,” he says. “I learned loads off them. I loved playing and touring. When you are in your early 20s you have loads of energy. But a time came when I had to leave. I was getting closer and closer to my finals, and the lads were getting busier and busier, demanding more of my time.

“I don’t think I agonised over leaving the band. I loved the fun, the ‘craic’ of doing it. Of course I envied them, seeing them play at Féile and those things. But I still got a chance to play with them on the odd tour. Deep down, I kind of knew that I wasn’t really going to crack it as a professional musician. Maybe I wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices.”

His medical studies brought Ronan to Belfast, before he spent six years specialising in rheumatology in Cambridge and Norwich in the UK. He met his future wife, Liz, in Cambridge and now looks back on his time in England as a wonderful experience. He does not see temporary emigration as a bad thing.

“Whereas you feel terribly sorry for people who are older or people who have no choice about emigrating, for a person in their early 20s the opportunity to go off to Australia or Canada or the States for a couple of years is fantastic,” he says.

“It’s nice to know you have a chance of coming back, but when I went off in the early 1990s I kind of assumed that I might have to stay in the UK. I wasn’t thinking about it as a hardship. I got to see a very nice part of England and experience things that I might not necessarily have here, given the smaller population of Ireland.”

Dr Kavanagh was one of the first to open up a private practice at the Galway Clinic, after moving back to his native city in late 1998. His father, Des, had set up a private orthodontic practice at The Crescent in the early 1970s and mother, Mary, was a physiotherapist, so medical care was clearly in the blood.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.