A GP ahead of his time
QUESTION Did any devout Catholic patients abandon late Navan GP Dr Paddy Randles after he highlighted Christian Brothers beatings in 1969?
DR Randles’s patients knew of his progressive views on education, so it’s unlikely that devout Catholics who were aware of them would have signed up to his practice in the first place.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dr Patrick Randles, an expert on child psychology, was a lone voice speaking out against alleged institutional abuse in religious institutions in Ireland. Most people were sceptical about his views, fearing they were exaggerated – but what he was saying turned out to be perfectly true.
In 1969, he made his first public comments about the alleged abuse of children at primary level in the De La Salle Brothers school in Navan, Co. Meath. In one case he highlighted, a young boy had broken his arm the year before while swinging from a tree. He was then repeatedly beaten at school, on that arm, six to ten times a day with a rubber hosepipe.
The school was set up in 1917, when the De La Salle Brothers arrived in Navan. It was often said that Dr Randles spoke out about possible abuse being carried out by the Christian Brothers in the town, but in fact, the Christian Brothers never came to Navan.
This was highlighted in 2006 when actor Pierce Brosnan, who has a lot of connections with the area, made various allegations of cruelty against the Christian Brothers in Navan. It was then pointed out that the Christian Brothers had never run a school in Navan and that he must have been referring to the De La Salle Brothers.
When Dr Randles made his accusations, few took him seriously; some people were outraged that he should make such comments against religious-run institutions. When the News Of The World ran a feature on Dr Randles and his views on the educational system in May 1969, copies of the newspaper were removed from newsagents in the town before people emerged from first Mass. On subsequent Sundays, bundles of the newspaper left outside newsagents mysteriously disappeared before those shops opened.
The De La Salle Brothers eventually left Navan in 1976 and the school has been staffed by lay teachers ever since. It now caters for both boys and girls, from Junior Infants up to Sixth Class, on the large campus occupied by Scoil Mhuire in Navan.
Despite the hostility to his 1969 comments, Dr Randles refused to be deflected from his mission. In the early 1970s, he was busy promoting a greater understanding of pre-school education for children. He also promoted other issues, such as better treatment for unmarried mothers. He remained as an active campaigner on related issues for many years, including the proper provision of contraception.
He was never far from controversy. In 1996, the fitness-to-practice committee of the Medical Council decided to hold a child sexual abuse enquiry in public.
Dr Randles was one of six general practitioners who went public in opposing what the Medical Council planned to do, saying that cases involving children should never be held in public, especially if they involved alleged sexual abuse. His wife, Dr Mary Randles, held similar views and joined his campaign on the issue.
Many years after Dr Randles had made his views on the abuse of children in educational institutions run by the religious known, some people in Navan declared that his opinions should have been given greater support. In 2009, it was said by many that people should be remorseful about how little notice was taken of Dr Randles in light of the then recent Ryan Report, which detailed abuse against children in care.
His supporters in Navan always regarded him as a good doctor, and said he was not only kind but also courageous. Most of his patients would have been very aware of his views and weren’t offended by them. It’s unlikely that anyone with opposing views would have joined his practice, so the question of devout Catholics leaving the practice in protest doesn’t really arise.
Dr Randles, whose family home was on the Dublin Road in Navan, died in July of last year, aged in his early 90s. He was survived by his wife Mary, four daughters, a son, a daughter-in-law, Ciara, and various grandchildren. His progressive views were reflected in his funeral service. He had opted not to have a Catholic funeral, but a humanist service instead. His wife continued the family GP practice at Watergate Street in Navan after her husband retired.
In May of this year, a bench was placed in front of Navan Town Hall in memory of Dr Randles and his progressive work.
In many ways, Dr Randles was a man who was ahead of his time, but his views on the abuse of children by religious orders are now widely accepted as accurate. Martin Cowles, Dublin 8.
QUESTION Is there a limit on the number of people who can contest the Presidency? And likewise, is there a limit on the number of people who can contest a Dáil Éireann seat?
FURTHER to the previous answer, in Dáil elections, any Irish citizen aged over 21 can go forward.
They don’t necessarily have to live in the constituency they want to contest and can be nominated in more than one constituency. There are certain requirements regarding candidates’ names. The name used must be the one by which the person involved is generally known, and must not be misleading or cause confusion. It can’t be unnecessarily long and can’t contain a political reference.
A former local politician in Dublin, Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus, sat on Dublin City Council for 25 years until his death in 2010 and was a prime example of someone whose name would have excluded him from a Dáil election. But in his case it didn’t matter as he never became a TD.
To be nominated, candidates must either have a certificate of party affiliation or they must get a statutory declaration made by 30 assentors in the Dáil constituency being contested. Candidates also have to pay a €500 deposit.
But just as with candidates for the Presidency, there’s no limit on how many people can contest a Dáil constituency. The record number of candidates in a Dáil election was in the 2011 general election, when 564 people contested the seats on offer. Jenny Stopes, Dublin 4.
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