Spotlight On: Mark McCorry
I was born in Enniskillen in Fermanagh, living in a small village called Belcoo until I was about 5 years old. 
We then moved to Kilkenny, where I lived until I was 20. My granny and grandad lived in a rural location in Kilkenny and we used to visit them regularly. I spent most of my time outside with their animals – they always had 1 or 2 donkeys, a dog and an array of cats and kittens. I loved spending time with them and observing the variety of wildlife in the area. As I got older, my passion grew to birdwatching. I frequently headed out with a friend to set up an observation post to watch birds during the day and badgers in the evening. A neighbour of ours was a vet and I loved watching All Creatures Great and Small and dreamed someday of a life in veterinary.
My journey to veterinary took a very scenic route though as I didn’t achieve the points required in my leaving certificate. So I decided to pursue my next passion – music! I’ve played guitar and bass since I was in my early teens and then I worked as a roadie for a band from Kilkenny and I also did some stage production. I eventually became the bass player in that band – not sure if that was a promotion or demotion!! This was a dream come true and a great adventure. I toured the country, making music videos, recording in studios, playing live on TV and on big stages and we released a couple of well received singles and an album. After 2 years the group disbanded, and I had to come up with my next plan of action. I had worked in bars before the band, so I began working in a bar in Dublin, becoming the manager within a short time. I enjoyed meeting people of all ages and backgrounds and working alongside lots of great staff. I worked hard to create an environment for good teamwork and I enjoyed coming up with solutions for the challenges of motivating and managing staff. I loved working in the bar but the unfortunate nature of this type of work can lead to conflict with patrons sometimes. This came to a head when an intoxicated individual entered the premisses and threw an empty pint glass at my face for refusing them service. I decided there and then after 5 years I needed a change, something more rewarding and hopefully less life threatening!! As I pondered my future a serendipitous meeting with a friend would be the turning point – he asked what I would like to do and I mentioned I’d love to work with animals. As it turned out he had a friend who was a vet who was looking for staff. I worked at that hospital from 2005 - 2010. Initially I completed an Animal Care Course in Killester College.
In 2006 I began my Veterinary Nursing studies in UCD where I graduated in 2009. As part of my external clinical placement in final year I had the incredible opportunity to work in Wellington Zoo Veterinary Hospital in New Zealand for two weeks. I was fortunate while there to work with a range of species including chimpanzees, possums, wallabies, lions, tigers and much more. I loved learning and developed a passion for animal behaviour so my studies continued in 2011 while also working a full-time job as Head Veterinary nurse at a busy small animal hospital in Greystones – there were a lot of very early mornings, late nights and weekends spent trying to juggle everything! I was delighted to earn an Honours degree in Applied Animal Behaviour through Portsmouth University in 2013.
My path to joining UCD as a staff member began when I was invited in 2010 to deliver some lectures for the Veterinary Nursing Degree Programme in UCD and I continued with increased frequency as an occasional lecturer up to 2019. In 2014 I also began teaching as part of the Animal Science level 6 course in Bray Institute of Further Education where I delivered their Canine Obedience and Training module until 2019.
In 2019 the Clinical Skills Tutor role was advertised in the School of Veterinary Medicine in UCD – and I jumped at the chance! To my absolute delight my application was successful, and I joined the School of Veterinary Medicine as Clinical Skills Tutor and Manager in December 2019 – just before the pandemic! From teaching in person in a room full of students to adapting our curriculum to being delivered online was a huge challenge, particularly as I was so new to the role! One of my favourite things about working in UCD is the support and encouragement I receive from my incredible colleagues, and this was demonstrated in full effect during this time. We successfully delivered our final year vet nurse repeat OSCEs that year in what looked like a scene from the movie Outbreak - observing and assessing skills from a 2 metre distance!! Practice sessions the following December were also challenging as students practiced in the middle of winter with all windows and doors open – many layers of warm clothing were needed! Lots of good came from this time as we created and developed more models as students could no longer work in groups – but the advantage of smaller group work and better availability of simulation models proved invaluable. This continues today as we encourage students to work in pairs with their own set of equipment which I have found leads to increased repetition of skills and more opportunities for constructive feedback from staff and peers.
I am very passionate about Interprofessional Education (IPE) and with my UCD colleague, Dr. Renagh Kelly we have implemented voluntary IPE sessions that we have designed to be case-based and skills focused. We have presented this approach at several conferences including Veted, InVeST and IAS Symposium. We recently teamed up with veterinary educators from around the world and were awarded a CIVME grant to review interprofessional education globally. I am a committee member of the Irish Veterinary Nursing Association (IVNA) since 2021. Our surveys of the nursing profession show worrying retention issues that need to be urgently addressed – including pay, lack of utilisation and respect. I believe some of these issues could begin to be resolved through effective implementation of IPE. In the last year I completed a post-graduate Diploma in Simulation Healthcare and Patient Safety with University of Galway and I will begin their Master programme in September 2025.
Outside of work, my love for music and songwriting continues. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful and supportive partner Ann Maire who is also an incredible singer and songwriter and we formed a band called Novatone. We challenged ourselves to record and release 3 singles in 2025 – we’ve released 2 songs so far with another planned for autumn this year. The goal is to repeat this in 2026 and then release our debut album. You can follow our Novatone journey (opens in a new window)here.