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Karl Daniel Mullen
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Obituary
Karl Daniel Mullen Gynaecologist and Irish rugby international. Born in Courtown Harbour, Country Wicklow, Ireland, on Nov 26, 1926, he died in Kilcullen, County Kildare, Ireland, on April 26, 2009, aged 82 years. Doctoring and rugby playing have always had powerful ties, but the Irish team that won the 1948 Five Nations Championship surely set a record of some kind. It included no fewer than five doctors or medical students, among them one of the most celebrated of Irish rugby players, the team captain Karl Mullen. The win was not to be repeated for another six decades. When Ireland did once again achieve what’s now known as the Grand Slam, Mullen was still around to share the general delight. The victory took place just over a month or so before his death. Mullen was educated at Belvedere College, a Dublin school with a tradition in rugby union football. He went on to train in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and became an obstetrician and gynaecologist, working for more than 40 years at the city’s Mount Carmel Hospital, and finally retiring in 2002. But rugby had always been in his blood, and sport dominated the early years of his life. On leaving school he naturally found himself playing for the old boys’ team. But wider recognition followed almost immediately, and he acquired the first of his 25 caps as hooker in a 1947 game against France. It was the next year that took Mullen into the sporting record books when, at just 21 years, he captained the Irish team in three out of the four games comprising the 1948 Five Nations series. 1942
With him in those games, and playing an equally key role, was the Ulster fly half Jack Kyle, also a medical student. The following year saw Mullen lead Ireland to victory in the Triple Crown. Not surprisingly, given the impact of his team’s success, Mullen was then chosen to captain the 1950 Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. He made his final appearance as a rugby international 2 years later. Mullen’s professional career in obstetrics and gynaecology was every bit as successful as his amateur years on the rugby field. John Bonnar, professor emeritus of Trinity College, Dublin, and a fellow gynaecologist, first met him in 1975. Mullen’s private practice was always extremely busy, Bonnar recalls. “He was held in high regard by his patients and by the profession.” Hubert O’Connor, another Dublin gynaecologist (and four times capped Irish rugby player) endorses that view: “He came across as a very humble man. He spoke very quietly and had an attractive halt in his voice. He said little, but what he did say was always worth listening to.” Long after his playing years were over Mullen remained close to rugby and took on various administrative roles in the game, and during the early 1960s chaired the Irish selectors. His medical interests, meanwhile, had not been entirely confined to the routine practice of obstetrics and gynaecology. In the late 1980s, he became a founder member of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association; he also sat on various medical advisory committees. The most intriguing of these appointments was to the chairmanship of the first Irish Government working party set up to study drug misuse in the country, and to advise the health minister of the time on what should be done about it. The working party sat from 1968 to 1971. Writing about it more than 30 years later, Trinity College specialist in drug addiction policy Shane Butler commented that Mullen himself imagined he’d been offered the task because of his association with sport—the thought being this made him an appropriate role model for young people. Butler offers an alternative and more devious explanation. “A number of members of the committee have suggested, rather more cynically, that the choice of chairman was influenced by those civil servants who were unconvinced of the necessity of the working party in the first instance and who were anxious to avoid having a psychiatrist—who might use the high-profile nature of the exercise to build a personal career or empire in drugs—in this position.” Whatever the truth of the matter, Mullen’s committee came up with recommendations that were “even from the perspective of 30 years later, well argued and clearly presented”, according to Butler. The tactical skills that found success on the rugby pitch had apparently found another outlet. Predeceased by his wife Doreen, Mullen leaves five daughters, three sons, and 18 grandchildren.
Geoff Watts geoff@scileg.freeserve.co.uk
www.thelancet.com Vol 373 June 6, 2009
Obituary
Karl Daniel Mullen Gynaecologist and Irish rugby international. Born in Courtown Harbour, Country Wicklow, Ireland, on Nov 26, 1926, he died in Kilcullen, County Kildare, Ireland, on April 26, 2009, aged 82 years. Doctoring and rugby playing have always had powerful ties, but the Irish team that won the 1948 Five Nations Championship surely set a record of some kind. It included no fewer than five doctors or medical students, among them one of the most celebrated of Irish rugby players, the team captain Karl Mullen. The win was not to be repeated for another six decades. When Ireland did once again achieve what’s now known as the Grand Slam, Mullen was still around to share the general delight. The victory took place just over a month or so before his death. Mullen was educated at Belvedere College, a Dublin school with a tradition in rugby union football. He went on to train in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and became an obstetrician and gynaecologist, working for more than 40 years at the city’s Mount Carmel Hospital, and finally retiring in 2002. But rugby had always been in his blood, and sport dominated the early years of his life. On leaving school he naturally found himself playing for the old boys’ team. But wider recognition followed almost immediately, and he acquired the first of his 25 caps as hooker in a 1947 game against France. It was the next year that took Mullen into the sporting record books when, at just 21 years, he captained the Irish team in three out of the four games comprising the 1948 Five Nations series. 1942
With him in those games, and playing an equally key role, was the Ulster fly half Jack Kyle, also a medical student. The following year saw Mullen lead Ireland to victory in the Triple Crown. Not surprisingly, given the impact of his team’s success, Mullen was then chosen to captain the 1950 Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. He made his final appearance as a rugby international 2 years later. Mullen’s professional career in obstetrics and gynaecology was every bit as successful as his amateur years on the rugby field. John Bonnar, professor emeritus of Trinity College, Dublin, and a fellow gynaecologist, first met him in 1975. Mullen’s private practice was always extremely busy, Bonnar recalls. “He was held in high regard by his patients and by the profession.” Hubert O’Connor, another Dublin gynaecologist (and four times capped Irish rugby player) endorses that view: “He came across as a very humble man. He spoke very quietly and had an attractive halt in his voice. He said little, but what he did say was always worth listening to.” Long after his playing years were over Mullen remained close to rugby and took on various administrative roles in the game, and during the early 1960s chaired the Irish selectors. His medical interests, meanwhile, had not been entirely confined to the routine practice of obstetrics and gynaecology. In the late 1980s, he became a founder member of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association; he also sat on various medical advisory committees. The most intriguing of these appointments was to the chairmanship of the first Irish Government working party set up to study drug misuse in the country, and to advise the health minister of the time on what should be done about it. The working party sat from 1968 to 1971. Writing about it more than 30 years later, Trinity College specialist in drug addiction policy Shane Butler commented that Mullen himself imagined he’d been offered the task because of his association with sport—the thought being this made him an appropriate role model for young people. Butler offers an alternative and more devious explanation. “A number of members of the committee have suggested, rather more cynically, that the choice of chairman was influenced by those civil servants who were unconvinced of the necessity of the working party in the first instance and who were anxious to avoid having a psychiatrist—who might use the high-profile nature of the exercise to build a personal career or empire in drugs—in this position.” Whatever the truth of the matter, Mullen’s committee came up with recommendations that were “even from the perspective of 30 years later, well argued and clearly presented”, according to Butler. The tactical skills that found success on the rugby pitch had apparently found another outlet. Predeceased by his wife Doreen, Mullen leaves five daughters, three sons, and 18 grandchildren.
Geoff Watts geoff@scileg.freeserve.co.uk
www.thelancet.com Vol 373 June 6, 2009