David Hickey’s extraordinary life bridges three distinct worlds: renowned Irish surgeon, sporting legend, and solidarity activist. His sporting success came early as he joined Dublin’s Gaelic football team at just 17 years old in 1969. He played in six consecutive All-Ireland Championship finals throughout the 1970s, securing three titles. Guided by his mother, a nurse, he studied medicine and became one of the world’s leading transplant surgeons, based at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital where he directs one of Ireland’s central organ transplant programmes.

Hickey’s solidarity with Cuba began through his admiration for its athletes, especially Olympians Alberto Juantorena, track runner, and boxer Teófilo Stevenson, who turned down lucrative professional contracts in order to remain loyal to the Cuban Revolution. In the 1990s, while developing Ireland’s pancreas transplant programme, Hickey met a Cuban transplant surgeon in France who invited him to visit the island.

In 1999, Hickey travelled to Havana and was ‘absolutely captivated’ by the people and society. He founded the Irish Cuban Medical Association, which shipped ten 40-foot containers of medical supplies to Cuba over the following decade and helped establish a kidney disease education centre on the island. He emphasises the devastating impact of the US blockade on Cuba’s healthcare system, including through the prohibition on selling any equipment to Cuba if it contains 10% or more US components. ‘That is virtually everything in medical technology’ he explains. He describes the US blockade of Cuba a war crime with genocidal intent. Despite this, he says ‘Cuba has the most advanced medical system in the world’ and points to the Latin American School of Medicine which trains tens of thousands of medics from around the world, including from the United States. He contrasts Cuba’s focus on public welfare, education, and universal healthcare with the profit-driven systems of the West. The national budget for Cuba’s public healthcare system is equal to that the Beaumont Hospital where he worked and yet Cuba produced better results.

In 1999, Hickey famously wore a T-shirt condemning the US blockade of Cuba at a Gaelic football celebration which was broadcast internationally. He explains why he viewed it as a moral duty to use his platform to raise awareness of the ongoing US blockade. Hickey is also a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian liberation struggle. He discusses his personal journey, including his battle with cancer and the tragic loss of his Cuban wife in a swimming accident.