Obituary: Rosemary O’Connell (Mulcahy) 1946-2021

Rosemary was brought up in Ardfinnan, County Tipperary. She was the youngest of three girls and she also had a younger brother. She was home educated by her mother Wendy until she was aged eight, when she joined her older sisters as a boarder at the Dominican Convent School in Wicklow.

As a child, Rosemary loved being outdoors. She was also an avid reader and loved music. She continued these interests throughout her life.

At University College Cork in the 1960s, whilst studying for a joint degree in Music and Psychology, Rosemary made lifelong friends, met her future husband Michael and became the determined and committed person we all knew.

Rosemary and Michael had three children; Rob, Gillian and Fiona who all now live in the US. Rosemary was a role model to her daughters and other young women in her life that saw someone who could balance a happy family life with a full and rewarding career.

Rosemary joined the Brothers of Charity (BOC), Lota, in 1967 as a trainee and held the post of Head of Psychology from 1980 until she retired in 2006. In her early years, she set up classes for children with Autism and commenced psychological services to primary schools. In the 1980s she was instrumental in establishing seven Child Development Clinics across Cork and Kerry which led to the establishment of a number of additional special schools for children with Autism.

Rosemary was an essential part of a visionary team that pioneered the inclusion and eventual integration of children with intellectual disabilities into mainstream schools. Using her ability to bring different agencies together through a co-operative approach, she was able to direct, advise and follow these initial plans through to final fruition. 

In the 1990s she led a team to establish the Regional Service for Children with Challenging Behaviour (TRASNA). She also led the team to shape the Regional ASD Service.  She actively supported the growth of adult services, including the repatriation of people back to their Health Board areas.

Rosemary built the Psychology Department from its humble beginnings in the 1960s to the large, vibrant, well-supported entity it was when she retired.

No problem was too great to overcome with Rosemary's professional input. On occasions, where bureaucracy appeared to impede progress, or procrastination prevented a proposal from progressing further, there was no better person than Rosemary to see it through to a successful outcome. She had a way of making everyone feel valued and she allowed people to develop without pressure, always working to make people feel the best about themselves.

Rosemary had a lifelong commitment to lecturing and training. She facilitated many trainee placements giving many trainees their first experience of working with people with developmental disabilities. Rosemary was a leader and mentor to a wide range of psychologists who passed through the BOC. She was also one of the founding members of the Irish Psychological Society.

Rosemary used the Griffiths Scales of Mental Development regularly in her clinical practice and became the main Irish tutor of the scales for many years. Having campaigned to have Irish children included in the GMDS-ER revision, she spent many weekends travelling across Ireland to assess children in order to ensure the new standardisation of the Griffiths scales was representative of both UK and Irish children.

Subsequently, she became an active member of the Association for Research in Infant and Child Development (ARICD) Executive Committee serving two terms as Honorary Secretary. She was pivotal in developing the Governance polices required after ARICD became a CIO charity.

Rosemary also contributed to the research and development of Griffiths III the most recent edition of the Griffiths published in 2016. Just prior to her death she completed a case study using Griffiths III for the new book Griffiths III in clinical practice.

In retirement, Rosemary moved to live in Union Hall, West Cork, where she embraced village life. She became the organist at the local church and joined the Union Hall women's group, book clubs and Bible study classes which all gave her huge joy.

Travelling was a huge part of Rosemary's retirement. She enjoyed frequent visits to the United States to visit her children and her seven treasured grandchildren. She travelled all over the world including teaching the Griffiths Scales in China and India and visited Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

Rosemary led a life full of achievement, love, and experience. She died just a week after her 75th birthday following a short illness.

Kierkegaard wrote "the highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived."

Rosemary lived a life filled with such high and beautiful things. She was a pioneer, an influencer and a beautiful lady who will be sorely missed by all the people she has touched in her outstanding career.