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During the meeting of the Council on December 5, certificates of honorary membership of the Society were presented by the President to Mr Gary Flather, OBE,QC, and to Dr Terry Maguire, FPSNI. |  Mr Flather receives his certificate of honorary membership from the President |
Mr Flather had served as Chairman of the Society's Statutory Committee from January, 1990, until February, 2000, and was the longest serving chairman since the Statutory Committee had begun in the 1930s. Before becoming chairman of the Statutory Committee, he had been a legal assessor for the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council, as well as being an inspector under the Financial Services Act for the Department of Trade and Industry and an assistant boundary commissioner.
His colleagues on the Statutory Committee had expressed their admiration for his judicial skills, judgment and presentation. They felt that the committee had been vitalised by his rich blend of experience. His influence on procedures had been extremely beneficial and had reflected innovation and creativity. Additionally, he had collaborated with the committee and with the Council in the reform of the structures in the future of the Statutory Committee. During his 10-year term of office he had presided over approximately 2,000 disciplinary cases and his judgment over those 10 years had never been successfully appealed. That was a tremendous record.
The Society as a whole had benefited greatly from Mr Flather's chairmanship and felt privileged to have had his services.
Mr Flather frequently sat as a Crown Court recorder, currently sat as a deputy High Court judge and was a bencher of the Inner Temple. Additionally he was a president of the Mental Health Review Tribunals and a chairman of the Police Discipline Appeal Tribunal for both the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. He was now the legal assessor to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. While carrying out those many professional roles, he still made time for charitable work, including being chairman of the Disability Committee of the Bar Council. Last year, in recognition of contributions in that field and in raising the profile of disability, he had been awarded the OBE.
The President then presented Mr Flather with his certificate of honorary membership of the Society.
Mr FLATHER, in response, said that honorary membership was a great honour, and he was enormously moved to receive it.
Welcoming Dr Maguire, the PRESIDENT said that he had undertaken his pharmacy degree course at Queen's University, Belfast, and had been persuaded to stay on to do a PhD. During his time as a postgraduate student, he had become involved with the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation and had persuaded it to house one of their conferences in the early 1980s in Belfast after the unsuitability of its scheduled venue in Nigeria had become apparent. By sheer hard word and strength of personality in getting others to join him, Dr Maguire had succeeded in organising an excellent conference in just four months and had justly been rewarded by being elected as president of IPSF.
After his PhD, Dr Maguire had decided to make his career in community pharmacy and had succeeded in obtaining a small grant that allowed him to investigate medicines management in sheltered accommodation -at a time when few pharmacists considered that as a valid role. He had gone on to manage a pharmacy and had started his long-term interest in health promotion by convincing the pharmacy owner that he should remove sweets from the counter and substitute them with books on dental health care!
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At the end of the 1980s, Dr Maguire had had the opportunity to purchase his first pharmacy. With this pharmacy as a base, he had been able to experiment with various extended role activities for the benefit of patients and customers. In the early 1990s his interest in health promotion had resulted in co-option on to the steering committee of the Pharmacy Healthcare Scheme and he had later became one of the first directors when PHS was turned into a limited company. All were extremely grateful to Dr Maguire for the enormous contribution he had made in that area and also for his contributions to the work on smoking cessation, as well as ongoing personal interaction with various committees at Lambeth. |  The President presents Dr Maguire with his certificate of honorary membership |
Dr Maguire had been an elected a member of the council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland for many years and had served as president for 1998-99.
Dr Maguire was an outstanding pharmacist and an outstanding ambassador for Northern Ireland. The President said that it was her great pleasure now to ask him to accept his certificate of honorary membership of the Society.
Dr MAGUIRE, in response, said that honorary membership was a generous gift for any pharmacist to receive from the Society. It was difficult to express how emotional he felt. He thanked the President and Council for his great honour.