James Hanlon

James Hanlon (1908June 1961) was an Irish medical doctor. After an infection left him blind and deaf at age 42, forcing his retirement from surgery, he retrained to become a physiotherapist. Hanlon was likely the first deafblind person to study and practice physiotherapy. He later worked at the Dublin Central Remedial Clinic, treating patients and raising money for funding a new clinic for polio patients.

Education and early career

James Hanlon was born in 1908. He practiced medicine at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and at St Laurence's Hospital, as well as a private hospital he established with two colleagues on Leeson Street. An operation to remove the infection was unsuccessful, and through sympathetic ophthalmia spread to both eyes; he was blind within months.

After becoming deafblind, he became depressed. Betty took on the family's finances and running the household. A trip to the shrine in Lourdes helped Hanlon find a new sense of optimism and he reset his goals, deciding to work towards becoming a physical therapist. He had started to visit Lourdes every summer since losing his sight; in June 1961, he died in the Asile hospital on the grounds of the shrine. He received tributes from around the world at his death; Pope John XXIII ordered that news of his death be announced on Vatican radio, and a French television report described him as a man of great courage and as a "hero for all." His Irish Times obituary said Hanlon "overcame blindness and impaired hearing to lead a brilliant medical career."

Shane Byrne, a rugby union player, is Hanlon's grandson. James Hanlon son was inspired by his father and followed in his footsteps and became a doctor as did several of James Hanlon's grandchildren. The Little Museum of Dublin owns several possessions of Hanlon, including a tape measurer which his secretary adapted to provide raised bumps denoting measurement markings.