Robert Farnan (physician)

Robert P. Farnan (1898[1]–7 January 1962[2][3]) was a gynaecologist, farmer, and senator from County Kildare in Ireland.[4]

Farnan was Professor of midwifery in University College Dublin, and became first chairperson of the Medical Research Council of Ireland upon its establishment in 1937.[1] He was successful and wealthy, owning houses in Merrion Square and Howth, a Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce, as well as Bolton Castle, a tower house and farm in Kildare, where he bred bulls.[4][5]

Éamon de Valera's son Terry wrote in 2006, "Perhaps of all my father’s friends and colleagues none were so close, nor had his trust as had Robert Farnan."[4] Farnan's home was de Valera's first hideout in 1919 after his escape from Lincoln Gaol.[6] He warned de Valera that his "external association" alternative to the Anglo-Irish Treaty was too subtle to persuade the public.[7] In September 1922, his house was the venue for a meeting between de Valera and Richard Mulcahy which tried in vain to halt the Civil War that the Treaty had started;[8] it is mentioned in As I was going down Sackville Street, Oliver St. John Gogarty's memoir of the time.[9]

De Valera, who received continuing financial support from Farnan, made him a director of the Irish Press,[4] and whenever he became Taoiseach Farnan was one of his Taoiseach's nominees to the Seanad.[2] Farnan was also appointed to the Council of State by each President till his death.[3] He mentored Éamon de Valera, Jnr, who also became a gynaecologist.[4]

Farnan's first wife, Lora, died in 1938; they had no children.[4] He remarried and had one child, Patrick, who became a Catholic priest.[4] Robert Farnan bequeathed Bolton Castle to the Archdiocese of Dublin to establish a monastic community, which was done by Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea after 1965.[5][10]

References

  1. ^ a b Breathnach, Caoimhghin S (July–September 2000). "The medical sciences in twentieth-century Ireland" (PDF). Irish Journal of Medical Science 169 (3): 221–5. http://www.ijms.ie/Portals/_IJMS/Documents/1693221.pdf. 
  2. ^ a b "Dr. Robert P. Farnan". Members Database. Dublin: Oireachtas. http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?MemberID=1301. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
  3. ^ a b "Obituary: Dr. R. P. Farnan". The Irish Times: p. 7. 8 January 1962. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g de Valera, Terry (2006) (PDF). A Memoir. Currach Press. pp. 22–4. ISBN 185607921X. http://www.currach.ie/shop/images/book_samples/1856079112.pdf. 
  5. ^ a b Beattie, Gordon (1997-11). Gregory's angels: a history of the abbeys, priories, parishes and schools of the monks and nuns following the rule of Saint Benedict in Great Britain, Ireland and their overseas foundations : to commemorate the arrival of Saint Augustine in Kent in 597 AD. Gracewing Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 9780852443866. http://books.google.com/books?id=FhclsTAWDHsC&pg=PA81. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
  6. ^ Keogh, Dermot (2005-01-27). The Vatican, the Bishops and Irish Politics 1919-39. Cambridge University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780521530521. http://books.google.com/books?id=ppLqHj9revoC&pg=PA30. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
  7. ^ Coogan, Tim Pat (1992). The man who made Ireland: the life and death of Michael Collins. Roberts Rinehart. p. 302. ISBN 9781879373716. http://books.google.com/books?id=ARY_EuoELzEC. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
  8. ^ Coogan, Tim Pat; Morrison, George (1998-12). The Irish civil war. Roberts Rinehart Publishers. p. 50. http://books.google.com/books?id=1V0iAQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
  9. ^ Gogarty, Oliver St. John (1937). As I was going down Sackville Street. Reynal & Hitchcock. p. 285. http://books.google.com/books?id=t8paAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 14 January 2011. "That is Dr. Farnan's house. So Farnan is in the Movement. We were not long in reaching Merrion Square." 
  10. ^ "History". Bolton Abbey. http://www.boltonabbey.ie/page1/page1.html. Retrieved 14 January 2011.