Finné Andrew Rynne.

The story of Ireland’s first vasectomy doctor Andrew Rynne taking on the church in the 1980s.

On TG4 at 9.30pm.

Filmmaker Paddy Hayes writes:

This is Andrew (top) outside Naas courthouse in 1983 having been fined £500 for prescribing condoms to those without rings on their fingers. Why does he look so happy? Because it was Rynne himself who wrote to the DPP to inform them that he was prescribing contraceptives to sinners.

He wanted to draw attention to the hypocrisy of Haughey’s “Irish solution to an Irish problem” where contraception was only allowed for “bona fide family planning purposes”. It cost him £500, but the law was duly changed.

Finné Andrew Rynne  On TG4 at 9.30pm.