Ugandan community well dedicated to Navan doctors

Navan's Dr Mary Randles and her late husband, Dr Paddy Randles were honoured by the Wells for Life charity with a well provided to a community in Uganda dedicated to them.

Aidan Jordan of Wells for Life presented a photo album to Dr Randles at an event in the Silver Tankard. It contain photographs from the village community that received a water well dedicated to Dr Mary and Dr Paddy Randles.

Dr Paddy Randles lost patients and faced a backlash from comrades in the medical profession in the 1960's for his stance against the religious orders on corporal punishment and also the couple's crusade to stop the brutal treatment of unmarried mothers in mother and baby homes.

The citation at the recent presentation spoke of the couple's "courageous work on behalf of people who didn't have much of voice themselves". "They stood up in a very courageous way and were "brave enough to stand up to cruelty and injustice."

Also in attendance was Sinead O'Shea, the producer and director of the award-winning documentary, 'Pray for Our Sinners' which features a lot of the work of the two doctors.

Sinead spoke of how she came up with the idea for the documentary and built up an excellent rapport with Dr Mary and they worked together on the making of the film.

Dr Randles was very humble in relation to her own achievements and spoke mostly on Dr Paddy and how he stood up for children and highlighted their ill-treatment in a number of local primary schools.

Aidan Jordan explained why Wells of Life chose to honour Dr Randles in this way. "In the past whenever we have funds that haven't been donated by a particular family or individual, we get to chose who the well will be dedicated to and in the past we have honoured John Hume for his efforts at peacekeeping in Northern Ireland, Vicky Phelan, Aisling Murphy, Sean Rooney, Presidents Michael D Higgins, Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.”

Aidan Jordan, retired St Patrick's Classical School teacher, is the Navan-based founder of the Irish branch of the Wells of Life charity

Aidan's brother Nick founded the charity in the US in 2010 and Aidan founded the Irish branch in 2018.

Aidan explains his family's involvement in the charity: "We lost our sister Joan in 2000. She was a nurse and there was a fundraiser in her memory and a school built in Uganda. Nick, who lives in the US, went out to Uganda to visit the school and realised the difficulties the people had in accessing clean water and when he went home, started the charity."

Since its inception, Wells of Life has drilled more than 1,300 wells in a rural area of Uganda, 70 of those were funded from Ireland. Each well benefits around 1,000 people.

Their first well was funded through Bishop Michael Smith who has been a great supporter of the charity. Groups and individuals also fund wells in memory of loved ones and the community of Gibbstowns and the Garvey family raised funds to mark the 100th birthday of former Gibbstown school principal, Vincent Garvey.

Anyone who wishes to support this charity can contact Aidan at 0861047282 or aidan@wellsoflife.org