Tom, I read the article last week and it's been playing on my mind ever since. I wonder if you want to a certain CB school in Marino? I went to Marino and I am carrying the mental scars now. I admire that you're parents had the sense to take you out of that crime scene and I wish I had rebelled like you did . I am reliving it every day now for the past 4 years ever since I got brain fog due to Covid. Luckily I am getting help but that programme on RTÈ has effected me in a bad way.
I just want to thank you for highlighting the horrors we went through and making people aware of what was going on in those days.
Frank do give me a shout when you are in Dublin and I'll make a point of being in town. I was far too early for Martin, having been there 1966-9 and the head was an odd character, but otherwise okay, called O'Reilly. I gather Martin was vile.
Yeah, O'Reilly wasn't the worst of them Tom. I remember Mc Manus, he was an absolute physcopath. He would put the fear of God into God himself! Will do Tom, thanks.
Thank you so much for getting in touch. Indeed I did! And yes, it was a crime scene as you say. If you would like to talk, feel free. Would you like to email me and we can exchange phone numbers. I am in Dublin every month or so and would be very happy to meet for a coffee.
This rings so many bells Tom, especially thinking that the many cruelties, small and large, were just part of school life. What did we know? Having seen Tom Brown’s Schooldays on the Beeb in which he gets roasted by the big boys over an open fire, I vividly remember my relief the first day at Belvedere when I could not find a single open fireplace. Perhaps I was looking for the wrong kind of fireplace?
I remember that version of Tom Brown's Schholdays very well - it was rather graphic. After the CBs, when I arrived in Third Grammar I marvelled at the parquet floors and the fact that teachers didn't biff you. I remember reading an obituary in the Telegraph years ago in which it was said that while the subject had been "roasted" at Harrow, on the whole he enjoyed the school!
Thank you. A little more light shone into the darker corners of Irish life. I rather wish some of the better Irish legal minds and those of the Revenue Commissioners might be directed towards exploring whether the CB and other religious organisations' charitable status might not be revoked and thus they might pay in coin for their misdeeds. Certainly their less than heartfelt and insulting self serving apologies to their victims are worthless.
Well said! It boggles my mind that the powers-that-be can't force these organisations to do the decent thing. Or indeed to wrest ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital from the nuns.
I went to the Js at 8 and it was scary too. A couple of them had foul tempers, others had the look of men my mother would have told me to be wary of, and the prefect of studies, whatever that title meant, went around with the biffer doubled over in his pocket like an erection. His preferred cruelty was randomly ramming his knuckles into our upper arms as he passed us in the corridor. Madness.
A vile group of people - these brothers. I was taught by Patrician - not Christian - Brothers in Abbeyleix. A putrid sadistic mob.
When I was in my 20’s I visited a quiet pub in the town and one of the erstwhile sadists was there drinking and sitting on his own at the counter. It seemed like he was being shunned. I spoke to him and my father disapproved of my overture.
Anyway, to make a long story short, this vile patrician brother was full of self pity and lugubriously explained to me how HIS life had been ruined by the Order.
He did not use the occasion to apologise and showed no remorse. A ruiner of lives.
Tom, I read the article last week and it's been playing on my mind ever since. I wonder if you want to a certain CB school in Marino? I went to Marino and I am carrying the mental scars now. I admire that you're parents had the sense to take you out of that crime scene and I wish I had rebelled like you did . I am reliving it every day now for the past 4 years ever since I got brain fog due to Covid. Luckily I am getting help but that programme on RTÈ has effected me in a bad way.
I just want to thank you for highlighting the horrors we went through and making people aware of what was going on in those days.
Frank O'Rourke
Frank do give me a shout when you are in Dublin and I'll make a point of being in town. I was far too early for Martin, having been there 1966-9 and the head was an odd character, but otherwise okay, called O'Reilly. I gather Martin was vile.
Yeah, O'Reilly wasn't the worst of them Tom. I remember Mc Manus, he was an absolute physcopath. He would put the fear of God into God himself! Will do Tom, thanks.
When were you there, Frank?
I started there in 68 /69 Tom.
We coincided!
The first teacher I had was brother Cahill. He was deadly with the duster and chalk! He could have been an Irish Ranger he was that accurate!!
Hi Frank
Thank you so much for getting in touch. Indeed I did! And yes, it was a crime scene as you say. If you would like to talk, feel free. Would you like to email me and we can exchange phone numbers. I am in Dublin every month or so and would be very happy to meet for a coffee.
This rings so many bells Tom, especially thinking that the many cruelties, small and large, were just part of school life. What did we know? Having seen Tom Brown’s Schooldays on the Beeb in which he gets roasted by the big boys over an open fire, I vividly remember my relief the first day at Belvedere when I could not find a single open fireplace. Perhaps I was looking for the wrong kind of fireplace?
I remember that version of Tom Brown's Schholdays very well - it was rather graphic. After the CBs, when I arrived in Third Grammar I marvelled at the parquet floors and the fact that teachers didn't biff you. I remember reading an obituary in the Telegraph years ago in which it was said that while the subject had been "roasted" at Harrow, on the whole he enjoyed the school!
Thank you. A little more light shone into the darker corners of Irish life. I rather wish some of the better Irish legal minds and those of the Revenue Commissioners might be directed towards exploring whether the CB and other religious organisations' charitable status might not be revoked and thus they might pay in coin for their misdeeds. Certainly their less than heartfelt and insulting self serving apologies to their victims are worthless.
Well said! It boggles my mind that the powers-that-be can't force these organisations to do the decent thing. Or indeed to wrest ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital from the nuns.
Brilliant, Tom.
I went to the Js at 8 and it was scary too. A couple of them had foul tempers, others had the look of men my mother would have told me to be wary of, and the prefect of studies, whatever that title meant, went around with the biffer doubled over in his pocket like an erection. His preferred cruelty was randomly ramming his knuckles into our upper arms as he passed us in the corridor. Madness.
Sorry to hear this, Alan. Where did you experience the Js?
Thank you Tom, powerful piece.
Thank you, Liam. It has been a long time coming, to be honest!
Great piece.
A vile group of people - these brothers. I was taught by Patrician - not Christian - Brothers in Abbeyleix. A putrid sadistic mob.
When I was in my 20’s I visited a quiet pub in the town and one of the erstwhile sadists was there drinking and sitting on his own at the counter. It seemed like he was being shunned. I spoke to him and my father disapproved of my overture.
Anyway, to make a long story short, this vile patrician brother was full of self pity and lugubriously explained to me how HIS life had been ruined by the Order.
He did not use the occasion to apologise and showed no remorse. A ruiner of lives.
It's always the way, Tom. They see themselves as the real victims.