A tribute to Baldoyle’s Bobby

BOBBY Ranson had such a positive effect on all of us here in St Peter and Paul’s Boys’ National School, in the Baldoyle community and on former pupils scattered throughout the world.

His positivity and genuine interest in us all was simply unlimited. His catchphrase was

“Never had a bad day in Baldoyle

? – and he ensured that we rarely had a bad day either.

In a teaching career of 39 years of dedicated and excellent service, spent entirely in his beloved Baldoyle and in our school, Bobby nurtured a whole generation of young people. He taught them to be positive, proud of themselves and where they came from. He made them believe in themselves.

Personally he supported me, encouraged me, put great faith in me and was just such a great friend, colleague and mentor (as he was to all our staff).

Who will ever forget the ice cream van driving into the yard, music blaring, on his last day – and one for everybody in the audience!

Bobby always thought of others. His legacy is the personal touch that is the cornerstone of our school. He was the one who promoted that ethos and embodied it. He knew every child’s name – and nickname – and they knew him as Bobby, struggling to call him

‘Mr Ranson’ in school.

Bobby recognised the value of knowing a person’s name, calling them by their name and taking an interest in them as a person. In recent months as his illness took hold, the thing that upset Bobby the most was losing the names of people. He was just the ultimate people person.

There is now a bit of Bobby in all of us – and that will live on. Many people have commented that he had a very short retirement. That may be true but he enjoyed a long, fruitful and valued teaching career. He was happy in his job and happy in his life.

Shortly after he retired an opportunity arose for him to come back on a part-time basis to teach pupils English. When I approached Bobby about it he asked me with typical modesty:

“But am I qualified for that

??

I told him that if I was to think of anyone to teach language and communication skills, he would be the first person to come to mind. So he did it, loved it and was brilliant at it.

Bobby left an indelible mark on all of us here in Baldoyle. Our lives are richer for having known him.

A selfless, decent man

By Tony McCullagh

EARLIER this year Northside People celebrated its 25th anniversary with a special edition of the paper.

We took a nostalgic look back at the stories that made the headlines over the past quarter century and paid tribute to some of the journalists who contributed to our pages down through the years.

The special edition got a great reaction from our readers, with many people taking the time to congratulate us by email or on our Facebook page.

One morning there was a message left on my desk. It read:

“Bobby Ranson from Baldoyle called to say well done on your anniversary edition. You don’t have to call him back; he just wanted to send his best to you.

?

I knew Bobby from my early childhood days as a pupil of St Peter and Paul’s Boys’ National School. He was the teacher that everyone wanted to have. If you ended up in his class you were considered something of a jammy git.

I never had the pleasure of having Bobby as my teacher. But he still knew my name – and the names of all the other pupils who were never in his class. He was the cool guy who was never in a bad mood. And even as a child, I got a sense that he was equally popular with the other teachers as well.

When I received Bobby’s recent message it meant a lot to me because I had heard from my parents that he was seriously ill. I didn’t call Bobby back immediately but he kept playing on my mind. After a couple of months, I got his home number from my mother and gave him a call.

We had a short but enjoyable chat. Although he sounded tired, he told me that he was in good form and everything was going great. He never once mentioned his health problems. As was typical with Bobby, it was never about him; he was always more interested in others.

Bobby passed away a number of weeks later. I will always be glad I made that call.