Medical School In Ireland

joekeliny

Hello everyone,

As you may have inferred, I am currently a bit confused. My brother recently got accepted into a medical school in Ireland. Currently, we live in Canada and he is finishing his last year of high school. As the North Americans know, we are required to pursue undergraduate studies prior to admission into a medical school (or any graduate program).

Therefore, I would like to ask, what are your opinions? Should he go to Ireland? Or try to get into one of the few Canadian med schools? **Espicially anyone with experience, but all responses will be greatly appreciated!**

Most of all, please pray for him and our family, and thanks for taking the time and offering your brotherly support.

mabsoota

your brother wants to go to med school?
i hope he realises it is a tough life, but a beautiful one.
i hope he is not looking for comfort or riches, as he will find neither!
but it is one of the ways we can serve God, and if he wants many challenges and an interesting life, he will find it.

i live in uk, but the irish system is similar.
there isn't undergraduate study prior to med school, it is all done in one course.
in uk, med school is not MD like in usa (i assume canada is the same), it is MB.ChB
(bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery).
most people don't get a masters degree unless they are going into hospital medicine (like internal medicine or surgery) and then they do a masters degree later as they are working as junior doctors.

in uk, medicine is only 5 years, but it is a tough course. after this, people need to work for one year before they are fully registered as doctors (so an international student should work one or two years before going back to their country, then, if they want to work in uk or ireland in the future, they can come back. without working one or two years, it is difficult to come back).
uk recognises irish med schools and also the other way around.

there are some lovely coptic churches in ireland.
the bishop is anba antony (who i met several times), who is based in north east england but travels to ireland and the other churches as often as he can. he has really poor health, but God has preserved him alive for us until now.
he is the bishop of my 'home' church (i have moved from there with my job), so i see him once or twice a year and have met many priests from churches in his diocese.
this is the website:
http://bishopantony.org

hmm... website not working very well, looks like they are updating it as the format has changed.

this is the website of one of the irish churches:
http://cahircopticchurch.org/
my friend has been there and says it is lovely.

this is info about the church nearest to dublin:
http://www.dublinchurches.com/cgi-bin/churchdb/churchdb.cgi?Category=Services (in%20languages%20other%20than%20English)&Searchterm=Coptic
i can't find the church website, but the contact details are there. i am not sure if they are up to date, but if you need this church, let me know, and i can get the contact details from my confession father who knows the priest there.

there are other churches too, when the website is fixed, you should be able to get the details from there.

one more thing, i have a friend in canada who says that getting a medical job in canada is much harder for 'foreign' graduates, so if your brother believes he should work in canada, it may be better for him to try to graduate there.
although obviously ireland is much more beautiful
;)
actually, it rains nearly all the time in ireland (more than uk!!), but it is much warmer than canada in the winter (i think most of the world is!) and the food is better (my canadian friends have told me their food is even worse than uk and ireland!)

the irish have a better accent and are very friendly, and also you can do the sign of the cross in the street in ireland without anyone staring at you. the catholic churches are nearly always open and you can pop in for prayer at any time, and it is much less aggressively secular than uk (again, i don't know how it compares to canada, i have not been there.)

i hope this little bit of information has helped, may God guide your brother to the right place, and give you all peace as you learn more of Him during this holy fast.

joekeliny

Thank you very much mabsoota! Your reply was greatly appreciated. And the only reason Ireland is an option is simply because not many students at all make it in Canada. Also, the last factor is that the school he was accepted into is rather expensive for international students, approx. $100,000 CAD per year (including living and travel costs).