O'Malley, (Charles) Conor (1889–1982), surgeon, was born 25 November 1889 in Kilmeelickin (Kilmilkin), Maam, Co. Galway, the youngest of fourteen children of Peter O'Malley, an extensive sheep farmer and businessman, and Mary O'Malley (née O'Malley). Four of his brothers were also doctors, and thirty-eight members of the family over three generations entered the medical profession. Intended by his father to remain at home and in time take over the family's varied enterprises, he was not sent to secondary school; after studying secretly for the matriculation examination by correspondence course, and briefly attending a Dublin grinding academy, he entered UCG to study engineering. Lacking the necessary grounding to grasp engineering mathematics, he transferred in mid year to first arts, and received first-class honours in English. Registering the next year as a first-year medical student, he was awarded a B.Sc. in anatomy and physiology (1914), and graduated MB (1917). Immersed in college activities, he was chairman of both the debating society and the students' representative council, and sub-editor of the college magazine; versatile at sports, he was an avid boxer and excellent sprinter, and played on the first UCG team to win the Sigerson Cup in Gaelic football (1911). Immediately after graduation he volunteered for the Royal Navy medical service, and saw action at sea as surgeon-lieutenant aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Furious, and served briefly as a captain in the RAF. On discharge in 1919 he interned in Mercer's hospital, Dublin, before completing postgraduate medical training in several London hospitals, including Moorfields; he obtained an MD, M.Ch., and Diploma in Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery. Returning to Galway in 1922, he worked as Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgeon and ophthalmologist at both the newly opened Galway Central Hospital, and the private St Bride's nursing home, Sea Rd; his brother Michael O'Malley was a surgeon at both institutions. Also practising radiology in Central Hospital and St Bride's, Conor O'Malley conducted diagnosis, superficial radiotherapy, and radon implantations, treating conditions from warts and goitre to malignant tumours. His formal appointment as radiologist to Galway Central (1928–32) was the first such appointment to a local authority hospital in Ireland made by the Local Appointments Commission (LAC). He also received an LAC appointment as consultant ophthalmologist and otologist to Central Hospital (1930–65), where in 1939 he started the first orthoptic clinic in Ireland. He conducted all eye and ENT surgery for the schools' medical service in Galway, and was professor of ophthalmology and otology at UCG (1931–59). To perfect his technique at cataract extractions he regularly spent holidays in India working in cataract clinics at his own expense. He initiated the first unit in Ireland of the Order of Malta ambulance corps, formally founded in Galway in 1938 on the presentation of certificates to the first group of volunteers on their successful completion of a year's training under O'Malley, who became chief medical officer of the corps in Ireland; within five years there were twenty-five units throughout the country. The first organisation involved in first aid anywhere in Connacht, the Galway unit was prominent in assisting survivors of the passenger ship Athenia, torpedoed by a German U-boat off the north-west Irish coast on the second day of the second world war (4 September 1939). Made a knight grand cross of Malta in 1946, O'Malley was also a knight of St Lazarus.
O'Malley's interests outside medicine were many and diverse; he was gifted with a remarkable capacity for singleminded concentration on the matter at hand. Remaining an avid sportsman, he played golf and tennis, and was a keen swimmer. Adept at shooting game from his boyhood in the Joyce Country of Connemara, he was a first-class snipe shot, and developed a passion for fishing, especially for salmon; he wrote With a fishing rod in Ireland (1976). He was a frequent contributor to medical journals on various subjects, and also published articles on Irish medical history, most notably regarding medical education in Galway and in Ireland generally. He helped found the PMPA insurance company, and was its president till his death. An extensive traveller, especially to regions noted for salmon fishing, and a noted raconteur, he cultivated numerous friendships in diplomatic and political circles worldwide, and occasionally wrote about his travels for Irish newspapers. A fluent Irish speaker, he encouraged patients to consult him in the language. His interests in local history and the environment were reflected in his presidency of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, and chairmanship of the Galway branch of An Taisce. Deeply interested in his ancestral history, he founded the annual O'Malley clan rally, and served as guardian clan chief; his last public appearance, two weeks before his death, was his attendance at the thirtieth clan rally, in Westport, Co. Mayo, where he was proclaimed honorary clan guardian. He married Sarah ‘Sal’ Joyce (1896–1959), a fellow doctor, who was successively visiting anaesthetist (from 1924) and permanent part-time consultant anaesthetist (from 1929) to Galway Central hospital, and clinical teacher in anaesthesia at UCG. They had two sons, both of whom became leading ophthalmologists in the USA, and three daughters, and resided variously in Co. Galway at The Crescent, Lenaboy, Salthill, and Eagle Lodge, Barna. O'Malley died, aged 93, on 22 July 1982, in Caiseal Geal nursing home, Castlegar, Co. Galway, after a long illness.