President of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth
Three years later, Dr. Farrell was appointed Vice-President and executive secretary to the then President of St. Patrick's, Dr. Michael Ledwith, his cousin. Allegations of serious misconduct against President Ledwith led to his resignation. Dr. Matthew O'Donnell of the Philosophy Department succeeded him as President. After Dr. O'Donnell's sudden death in 2006, Farrell was appointed President of the St. Patrick's College (Pontifical University and National Seminary). N.U.I. Maynooth was reorganised by an Act of Parliament in 1997. Dr. Smyth was appointed President of the newly constituted University College, Maynooth.
Dr. Farrell presided over the revision of the formation programme 'Pastores Dabo Vobis' at St. Patrick's. He also supervised the renovation of its heritage buildings. His time as President, however, coincided with a general decline in world wide vocations in the Roman Catholic Church.
During Dr. Farrell's tenure, Dr. Charles Curran, a controversial U.S. professor of theology, was invited to speak at the McDonagh Conference held at the college. The Conference was held to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the eminent liberal theologian and Professor Emeritus, Fr. Enda McDonagh, a native of Bekan. It transpired that Dr. Curran had been censured by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) in 1986, due to his opposition to Roman Catholic Church ban on contraception.
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