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Physiotherapist Marie Ó Mír has been appointed as the Irish Society of Physiotherapists (ISCP) new chief executive, it was announced this week (14 March). Dr Ó Mír will take up the reins on 29 May for a handover period before current chief executive Ruaídhri O’Connor departs the following month.

A practising physiotherapist and academic researcher with more than 26 years’ clinical experience, Dr Ó Mír was appointed following a recruitment process. She joined the ISCP in 2020 as an advanced practice project officer and has ‘advocated widely for the physiotherapy profession and worked to establish a career and education pathway for the profession’, the ISCP said.

A native of Tipperary, Dr Ó Mír graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) in 1997 before embarking on a career that included spells at the Mater Misericordiae University and Beacon hospitals in Dublin, and as far afield as Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. She spent more than 18 years at Children’s Health Ireland in Crumlin, moving from being a senior physiotherapist in paediatric burns and plastics to a clinical specialist physiotherapist post in in paediatric orthopaedics.

In Dublin in 2010 she established Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin’s first national paediatric orthopaedic triage service, for which she received a National Healthcare commendation in 2012 for ‘Outpatient Innovation of the year’.

Academic prowess

The PhD Dr Ó Mír added to her portfolio in 2019 was on the topic of Advanced Practice Physiotherapy in Paediatric Orthopaedics. As part of her study, she completed modules on health management and health economics and went on to gain a Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership in RCSI last year.

As well as presenting her work on national and international platforms, Dr Ó Mír lectures on paediatric orthopaedics and advanced practice at UCD and Trinity College Dublin.

Describing herself as a ‘committed chocoholic’, Dr Ó Mír also enjoys travelling, swimming, reading, knitting and ‘dragging her children out on hikes’.

The ISCP is the national, professional body that represents more than 3,000 chartered physiotherapists in Ireland. For more information, visit: https://www.iscp.ie