“Sean O’Casey, born John Casey in 1880, was a bitter man with much to be bitter about. His father, a Dublin Protestant was a clerk who died when Sean was six and the family then slid into poverty. Protestants were not supposed to be poor. One marked characteristic of Irish poverty was trachoma, endemic since the Great Famine and often leading to blindness. It was eventually brought under control after the Second World War by penicillin, but by then one of O’Casey’s eyes was blind, and the other severely damaged. In his childhood it was incurable. Christopher Murphy, in his new and definitive biography based on a thorough investigation of sources, makes it painfully clear how devastating was the effect of trachoma on the playwright’s life and character. (

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Degenerative joint disease continues to be an increasing problem in ageing populations throughout the world. Obesity also continues to be epidemic in proportion. It is now clear that when these two disorders are combined adverse outcomes may result. In a study of 68 obese patients undergoing knee replacement surgery nine of the 78 joint replacements resulted in failures. …