Dr. Tony Holohan has resigned as Chief Health Officer today and thanked the general public and colleagues for their support after the death of his beloved wife, Emmer.
r Holohan wrote on Twitter: “Today I am leaving my role as a civil servant and CMO. It is an honor to serve the Irish people.
“Thank you for your support when my colleagues, friends, and the general public, especially Emmer, died. And thank my family. A new adventure awaits.”
Dr. Holohan overcame a pandemic and piloted Ireland as head of Nphet, when his wife, Dr. Emer Feehily, became seriously ill with multiple myeloma.
Dr. Feehily died in February. Dr. Holohan has been the CMO for 14 years and talked about the “honor” he felt served the Irish people during the pandemic.
But he also admitted in a LinkedIn post after his wife died, and the loss gave him time to reflect.
He decided to “do something meaningful in her memory,” but the details of his future are not yet clear.
In March, Dr. Holohan announced that he would resign to take on an academic role at Trinity College. But that decision was controversial, and in the end he didn’t take that position.
Dr. Holohan was scrutinized in 2018 after the servival check scandal. After that was emphasized, he advised the government not to take advantage of a full review of the screening program.
This was later revealed publicly when the story of a woman, including Vicky Ferran, who was not informed of the results of the slide from the cervical check, came out.
Ferran is currently suffering from terminal cancer and has been enthusiastically campaigning since then.
In 2021, Dr. Holohan said he was “extremely regretted” about the damage done to the woman in her cervical examination plan.
Professor Breda Smythe has been appointed Interim Chief Medical Officer. She will take on her role next week.