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Irishman Barry Edward O’Meara, Napoleon’s doctor on St Helena from August 1815 to July 1818, played an important role in Napoleon’s later life and in the propagation of the latter’s writings composed on St Helena. The first “fair” treatment of him in English was Philippe Gonnard’s remarkable thesis, The Exile of St Helena (English version, London 1909). Since Gonnard, however, the quality of biographical treatments has been mixed. One monograph – indeed the only ever on O’Meara –, namely, The Emperor and the Irishman by medical doctor Hubert O’Connor appeared in 2008. Though this book offers many tantalising details regarding the Irish doctor, it is relentlessly apologetic for him, and worse still there are no notes to substantiate the new information therein. Furthermore, as with all other treatments of O’Meara’s life, there is no discussion of the last sixteen years of the doctor’s life (1820-1836) when O’Meara was a major player in international Napoleonism and close collaborator with members of Napoleon’s family. And still today, miss-information appears in published accounts; even the most recent edition of the British Dictionary of National Biography is not immune. This article is an attempt at a “fair” and accurate biographical sketch of the Irish doctor.