News
For hundreds of Canadians chasing the dream of becoming a physician, the journey to medicine often begins with competing for a limited number of medical school seats in Canadian medical schools, before taking them across the Atlantic Ocean to complete their education in Ireland. In fact, the combined annual output of the six Irish medical schools is higher than any single Canadian medical school.
Why Ireland?
The medical education in Ireland is well established, known for robust clinical training and problem-based learning, and there is a long history of Canadian students training there.
More than 1,200 Canadian students are studying at Irish medical schools for the 2025/2026 academic year, with approximately 300 set to graduate in June. At the University of Limerick, for example, more than half of the medical student cohort are Canadian, making it feel not so far from home.
Julia Rodighiero, originally from Quebec, is a 2025 graduate of Trinity College Dublin. She is currently an internal medicine resident at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Not wanting to delay medical school by reapplying after a first unsuccessful application, Ireland came up as a possibility when exploring her options. Some of her contacts knew others who had studied in Ireland and connected them. “Right away the network was starting to build, and I hadn’t even applied,” she says.
Also a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Nyka Riego is currently in a family medicine residency in Halifax, Nova Scotia, her home province. After her second unsuccessful year of submitting applications to medical schools in Canada, she began hearing about others who had studied in Ireland. Knowing someone who was already in the country lent credibility to the idea of going abroad. But Dr. Riego was clear that it was not a long-term departure. “I was leaving with the intention of always coming back.”
Landing a spot in a Canadian medical school is notoriously competitive: fewer than 1 in 10 applicants succeed. Even among candidates with strong academic records, a persistent misconception remains that studying abroad is the ‘easier’ route, or only possible for those from privileged backgrounds. “In no way would I describe the process as easier,” says Dr. Riego, explaining that the reality is far more complex.
Financially, the sacrifice can be significant. Ireland’s high cost of living, high tuition fees for non-E.U. students, an unfavourable exchange rate, limited financial aid options, and flights back and forth to Canada can leave students, according to the graduates we spoke to, with upwards of $300,000 of debt related to their education—significant when compared to the average debt of Canadian medical school graduates of $164,000 (AFMC, n.d.).1
Nicholas Conradi is a University of Limerick graduate, now working as a pediatrician in Alberta, his home province. He says he has found that Irish training is generally met with respect once colleagues learn where he studied. “If anything, I think that there’s a certain amount of resilience that is bestowed on the Irish graduates,” he explains. Dr. Rodighiero agrees. “The medical residents that have studied in Ireland are quite strong, and people in the Canadian programs notice that. I think there’s an understanding that if you’ve gone to Ireland or abroad anywhere, you do have this drive.”
Dr. Rodighiero, Dr. Riego, and Dr. Conradi all agree that the most difficult part of the process was navigating their return to practise in Canada. Students must balance their Irish curriculum with careful coordination of exams, electives, and application deadlines, often across multiple systems. For example, students in Ireland are often preparing for their finals while also studying for Canadian and United States licensing exams.
About the experience, Dr. Conradi says he “very much underestimated the odds against me,” when applying for a residency position in Canada. “When I ultimately came to apply to residency in Canada, I remember there being 2,000 applicants for two spots, for example. That, as a mental barrier, dawns on you towards the third and fourth year and that’s a difficult thing.” Dr. Riego describes “this daunting feeling that you weren’t going to be able to come back to Canada.”
Dr. Rodighiero says that keeping up her resilience was challenging. “The mental stamina of being in Ireland for the academic year, writing your Irish final exams, then flying home without a break was demanding. I think I was home for two days before leaving for my Canadian summer electives.”
Each year, organized by their school’s North American Irish Medical Student Association (NIMSA) chapter, graduating students get the opportunity to speak candidly with those coming up behind them, sharing exam strategies, application timelines, missteps, and wins. Many say that seeing someone just a year or two ahead finding success made an enormous difference. “It was really helpful to see these successful stories. People were really generous, laying out their journey in their presentations,” says Dr. Riego.
These schools understand that most Canadians wish to return home to practise after graduation. As a result, each has dedicated international teams to offer guidance and support to help their Canadian students do just that. These international teams helped students plan early, understand their options, and navigate obstacles. Dr. Conradi had “a plan ABCDE&F, essentially. My school required all students to have that plan A, have that plan B, have that plan C… We had to articulate it, and it had to be an actual plan.”
While these journeys are personal, they also point to broader, system-level challenges—ones the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) has now begun to address directly. Representatives from the MCC visited the University of Limerick School of Medicine and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in September 2025 to explore ways to strengthen collaboration efforts to better support Canadians studying in Ireland who wish to return to practise in Canada. The discussions focused on curricula, MCC assessments, CaRMS matching, and alternative pathways. The MCC’s visit also included presentations to Canadian students with opportunities for them to ask questions all geared at supporting their return to Canada.
There is a path home to Canada for those medical graduates who want to return, though it often requires persistence, planning, and resilience. For these three physicians, that path has led back to Canadian residency programs and into practice. Reflecting on her journey from Ireland to her current family medicine residency, Dr. Riego says she now feels she is “right where I’m supposed to be after all those years.”
Meaningful changes are also underway at the MCC to make navigating that journey clearer, and to make support easier to find. This includes extending the MCC Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part I eligibility window to better accommodate international graduation timelines, as well as reviewing exam scheduling to minimize conflicts with core clinical training.
Just as importantly, the MCC has committed to engaging in more regular, direct communication with medical schools abroad, mirroring the cadence used with Canadian faculties, to ensure students receive accurate, timely guidance as pathways evolve.
For Dr. Rodighiero, the decision to study medicine in Ireland began as a pivot, but ultimately became a defining experience. “Even though it wasn’t plan A, Ireland was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Dr. Conradi says his time studying in Ireland has led to a career he finds deeply meaningful. “This is the best job in the world, and all of it is worth it at the end of the day”, he says, reflecting on the experience. Looking back and knowing what he knows now, he says that he and his wife (who joined him in Ireland during his studies) would choose Ireland again, even if he were offered a spot in a Canadian medical school. “We’d be hard pressed not to still go to Ireland because it was such an important part of our lives. To put it into perspective: my daughter’s name is Saoirse—Irish for freedom.”
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1 Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). (n.d.). Future MD Canada – What will it cost to become a doctor?