Radical and inspiring progressive headmaster

Ruarc Gahan, who has died aged 88, was the radical first headmaster of Sutton Park School, whose vision was for it to be a free, non -denominational, co-educational community school.

Gahan, headmaster of Sutton Park from its establishment in 1957 until his resignation in 1972, wrote to the Department of Education in 1971 making just such a proposal, only to have it rejected.

At that time, he was described by the late Rex Cathcart, a pioneering professor of education at the University of Ulster in the 1960s, as "one of the most significant educational thinkers in Ireland or the UK" .

Gahan introduced to Ireland the ideas of AS Neill and the Progressive Schools Association, creating a school council, on which Sutton Park's pupils had a majority, which decided on day-to-day matters such as discipline. He promoted the introduction of sex education into Irish secondary schooling, inviting the well-known Dublin gynaecologist Michael Solomons to speak to his pupils as early as 1964. From its foundation also there was no corporal punishment at Sutton Park.

Gahan was seen as extreme, even dangerous, and that brought him into conflict eventually with the school’s board of directors. An attempt to dismiss him was made in 1970 after he had written to parents, without the board’s permission, outlining a proposal that bursaries be provided for less well-off pupils. The attempt at dismissal led to a threat of strike action by the teaching staff.

Solidarity

The solidarity shown by Gahan’s colleagues stemmed from their sheer admiration for him.

Johnny Medlycott

, former headmaster of Mount Temple Comprehensive School, also in north Dublin, and a colleague of Gahan’s from 1960, recalled that he “was exceptionally inspirational to work with”.

Medlycott stresses that Gahan "didn't want Sutton Park to be a flash in the pan, he wanted it to be a contribution", and, in that capacity, was a "very active" member of the English Teachers' Association of Ireland, serving on a committee chaired by the late Augustine Martin which oversaw dramatic syllabus reform.

He was also a regular attender of the meetings of the Irish School Heads’ Association, a largely Protestant body, although he himself was an atheist.

In this connection, another of his innovations was to teach religious education at Sutton Park, not as doctrine but as wide-ranging philosophy.

This was perhaps ironic. Beresford Ruarc de Fremery Gahan was one of five children of a Church of Ireland rector, Beresford Townsend Gahan, and his wife, Helen de Fremery. He was educated at St Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, after which he took a degree in English and French at Trinity College, Dublin.

Organ scholar

At school, he studied the organ under the renowned music teacher Joseph Groocock, and became in time what another former colleague, the historian

Julian Walton

, describes as “a really, really good organist and choirmaster”.

In retirement from the 1980s, he was organist at three Church of Ireland parishes in Co Wicklow, having made his atheism plainly known to the rectors concerned in each case. He co-founded the Millennium Choir at Blessington.

A composition of his, Alone with none but Thee, my God, based on a prayer attributed to St Colmcille, won an RTÉ prize in 2006.

Before Sutton Park, Gahan had taught at Castle Park School in Dalkey, Co Dublin, and then, for three years, in Buenos Aires. After leaving Sutton Park, Gahan, a lifelong vegetarian who was also very committed to social equality, worked in the wholly different atmosphere of Ballyfermot Vocational School in one of the poorest parts of Dublin.

He was a co-founder of the Green Party and an active member of the Irish Campaign Against Blood Sports and of the Anti-Vivisection League. He also campaigned against live animal exports.

The legacy which Gahan left will be felt for a long time after it was bequeathed.

He is survived by his beloved partner Catherine Morrow, 15 cats, and many deeply mourning former pupils and colleagues.