Deposited Collections

Biographical History

The second son of John Dillon and grandson of John Blake Dillon, Theo Dillon was educated at Belvedere and Mount St Benedict, Gorey and entered University College Dublin with a scholarship in classics and mathematics in 1915. He graduated in medicine in 1921 and was awarded a travelling scholarship in pathology. However he had not been in good health for some time and went instead to continental sanatoria in search of treatment for what was suspected, mistakenly, to be bone tuberculosis. He spent a year at Berk-Plage in the north of France and four years at Leysin, Switzerland, first as a patient and then as assistant to Dr Rollier, a pioneer in the use of heliotherapy. He married Marie Berringer and spent 1928–29 in Vienna studying modern methods in medicine. They moved to Dublin in 1929. In 1932 Dillon was appointed Professor of Therapeutics and Pharmacology in UCD.

Archival History

This collection was deposited in UCD Archives on 14 October 1994 by Prof. Brian Farrell on behalf of his wife Marie-Therese, Prof. Dillon's daughter.

Scope and Content

Mainly letters from Theo Dillon to his father John, 1922–7, from France and Switzerland where he had gone to recuperate and where he married. Letters concern a wide range of topics from the Civil War and British and European post-war politics; medical education, particularly in Dublin; the nature and progress of his own treatment; his marriage and career prospects; and family matters. Also includes some letters to Theo from contemporaries; and documents relating to his literary, religious and social interests.

• Access: Available by appointment to holders of a UCD Archives reader's ticket. Produced for consultation in original format. Original material will be retrieved at 11am and 2pm only.
• Language: English
• Finding aid: Descriptive catalogue