A Naas how-do-you-do

Gene Kerrigan went to the Great Contraception Trial in Kildare.

A couple of gardai were smoking in court at a minute past eleven, but that didn't matter because it would be at least another five minutes before Justice Frank Johnston arrived on the bench. There's no law says the law can't take it's time. An Inspector suggested to the gardai standing near the door that they might move those TV people out of the hall. They shouldn't really be filming in there at all, you know.

The courthouse in Naas was attracting more than its usual share of attention from the national media and the reason was sitting on a bench out in the hall, talking to his barrister. Dr. Andrew Rynne‡ had. been nicked by the cops for breaking the law.

Despite its pseudo-solemn setting, lacking only a main mast and Errol Flynn swinging from a rope to make it resemble an eighteenth century galleon, Naas District Court is a homely affair. Everybody knows everybody and the decisions are processed with the kind of productivity which would gladden the heart of the owner of a sausage factory.

First, though, Justice Johnston announces that John Healy, Court Registrar for seven years, has moved on to Dublin and he'll be sorely missed. Solicitor Brian Price rises to announce that he would like on behalf of his colleagues to join in a tribute to Mr. Healy. A local journalist rises to add his praise. A garda inspector says on behalf of the Naas gardai how much Mr. Healy will be missed. Then the Court Clerk gets up to do the same. There's a pause, as if there's an expectancy that someone will rise at the back of the court to join in the tribute on behalf of the defendants.

For the next half hour the cases are processed. Exemptions for late night drinking, licence renewals, driving offences. ("I was intending getting rid of the car anyway and didn't see any point in getting it taxed.") Then, the Director of Public Prosecutions versus Andrew Rynne. And Rynne's barrister, Tom O'Connell, was asking for an adjournment to allow his client time to approach the High Court to claim, that Section 4 of the Act under which he had been charged was constitutionally invalid. The state consented to the adjournment. Case to come up again on June 22. During the few seconds it took for this to happen Andrew Rynne was outside phoning home to let the folks know that nothing had happened yet.

Rynne is one of several doctors who have long been inviting the DPP to have them nicked for breaking the law - to wit, the Health (Family Planning) Act of 1979. In January 1981 Rynne was one of three doctors who organised a letter to the then Minister for Health; Michael Woods, announcing that they would supply contraceptives directly to patients in contravention of Section 4 of the Act. "In the absence of any other definition for the term bona fide family planning purposes, this will be taken to mean any couple who are sexually active and who require the means of avoiding a pregnancy . Therefore a supply of signed authorisations will be available to my patients without the necessity of my having to interview them first." The letter added that such an action "is doing no more than complying with the verdict of our Supreme Court in 1973", in the McGee case.

The letter, blowing a hole in Charles Haughey's Irish solution to the politicians' problem, was eventually signed by 220 doctors. The politicians and the law ignored it.

Last February one of the doctors who has long campaigned for a realistic attitude to contraception, Paddy Leahy, said on RTE that he would break Haughey's law. He challenged Michael Woods, who was present, to say if the law would take its course. Woods squirmed away from the question. Since then Leahy has had four visits from the police. The first three times he told them he was breaking the law and they went away. The fourth time they said his confession was no good as it wasn't in writing. Leahy promptly sat down and wrote a confession and gave it to the gardai. "That should do it", said the detective. It didn't.

Dr. Andrew Rynne went about getting himself nicked in a more systematic way. He arranged the matter with his friend and neighbour at Prosperous, Co. Kildare, Robert Sheridan and then wrote to the DPP in July announcing that he had sold condoms to a specific person on a specific date. The gardai went to Sheridan and he obliged them with a statement confirming Rynne's lawbreaking activities and provided them with a receipt (for £2) for his purchase of the condoms.

On November 29 Rynne was served with a summons to appear at Naas District Court to answer the charge that he "supplied contraceptives, namely a packet of Ten (10) condoms, to one Robert Sheridan otherwise than by way of sale and in accordance with the provisions of Section 4 of the Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 and contrary to the said Section". Robert Sheridan was served with a summons to give evidence against his friend and happily complied.

After the case Rynne and Sheridan and their friends, relatives and supporters gathered at Rynne's house in Prosperous to toast the continuing campaign. It will cost several thousand 'pounds to bring the case to the High Court and possibly the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the Coalition government may change the laws on contraception, anyway, given their supposed dislike of Haughey's Act. Or they could use the legal proceedings as an excuse to dodge the issue.

The campaign for a realistic law on contraception began in the late 1960s. There's no law says the law can't take its time.