World-renowned Waterford surgeon to reveal frontline work in conflict zones at local event

A world-renowned trauma surgeon based in Waterford is set to close this year's South East Science Festival with a rare public insight into his work in some of the world's most volatile conflict zones.

Morgan McMonagle, a vascular and trauma surgeon at University Hospital Waterford, has just returned from Gaza and will deliver a special address titled 'Humanitarian Medicine in Conflict Zones' at the Auditorium in the SETU Cork Road campus on Tuesday, November 18, at 7.30pm.

The talk is a late addition to the programme and demand for seats is already high. Free tickets are now available via Eventbrite, and pre-booking is essential.

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Festival spokesperson Eoin Gill said the Waterford audience will gain an unusually close look at lifesaving work carried out under extreme pressure in war-torn regions.

Dr McMonagle, originally from Cavan, studied medicine at UCD before training in Australia, the US and the UK. Early in his career, he worked in helicopter rescue services in Australia before moving into general and vascular surgery in the UK, where he treated young soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with gunshot and shrapnel injuries.

Since relocating to Waterford, he has served on humanitarian missions in the West Bank, Ukraine, Lebanon and Gaza. On one mission, the hospital where he was working was bombed.

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With journalists barred from entering the conflict zone at the time, his accounts from the ground became vital and attracted widespread global attention.

"We are honoured to have Morgan close this year's South East Science Festival. His experience and perspective on humanitarian medicine are extraordinary. The public will have a rare chance to hear it first-hand," Mr Gill said.

The 2025 South East Science Festival, funded by Research Ireland and run locally by CALMAST at SETU, has drawn an estimated 6,000 attendees, with events taking place across Waterford city and county, Clonmel and Carlow.