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	Battering Brothers Packed a Punch Well beyond the Industrial Schools By Matt Cooper Irish Examiner May 22, 2009 http://www.irishexaminer.com/story.aspx?id=92296&m=5.3.5.0&h=battering-brothers-packed-a-punch-well-beyond-the-industrial-schools I repeat that I witnessed assaults regularly. I saw some boys get pretty serious beatings, although not enough to require hospitalisation, thankfully. Sometimes it happened for the most trivial of offences, such as speaking out of turn, being late for class or for being unable to answer a question correctly A YEAR ago I wrote on this page about the Christian Brothers, saying they had left their mark, literally, on hundreds of thousands of Irish boys. I related, from personal experience, as to how they did so by choosing from a range of weapons including leather straps, metre-long wooden sticks, bamboo shoots and their fists. I wrote about my experiences at the North Monastery CBS in Cork from 1978 to 1983, where I witnessed assaults regularly. I wrote about it because of the decision by the Christian Brothers to hand responsibility for the near 100 schools under their control – both primary and secondary – to a special lay administered trust. This was done because there are too few brothers left of teaching age to undertake the old responsibilities. Instead, responsibility was turned over to a group of lay figures who undertook to uphold the "ethos and traditions" of the schools. The list published at the time included many worthy aspirations, little of which bore resemblance to what I remember as the practice. I received quite a few letters of complaint after this newspaper published the piece. Some accused me of imagining or exaggerating what I saw and experienced. (I didn’t. I know what I saw). Others cited what they regarded as the generosity of the order, providing an education the boys would not have received otherwise, as if that somehow excused the actions of some within the order. Some praised the brothers for instilling a sense of Irish identity and religion that might not have existed without them. Clearly, some of my correspondents seemed to feel the Christian Brothers were beyond criticism. I bring this up again because of this week’s publication of the report of the special commission that spent six years investigating child abuse in this country in the 20th century. It is a shocking five-volume report that catalogues an appalling culture of abuse, physical, verbal and sexual, carried out mainly at the residential and industrial schools where children were sent for care and were met with violence. As yesterday’s Irish Examiner reported, eight chapters of Judge Sean Ryan’s report are devoted to the Christian Brothers as the largest provider of residential care for boys in the State. It bears repeating that more allegations were made against the Christian Brothers than all the other male orders combined. The order was found guilty of "excessive and pervasive" physical punishment of boys. At Artane in Dublin, by far the biggest industrial school in the country, there was a "chronic" problem of sexual abuse as well. The disgraces were repeated, for decades, at Daingean in Co Offaly and Letterfrack in Co Galway. The report highlights how the order frustrated victims or their relatives as they sought to disclose wrongdoing or get justice that involved making the perpetrators responsible for their actions. It points out how the brothers did whatever they could to avoid publicity and scandal and how they moved to protect their own wherever possible. The safety of children was never a priority. The people of Ireland got an apology from the brothers this week. "We are deeply sorry for the hurt caused," they said. "We are ashamed and saddened that many who complained of abuse were not listened to. We appreciate that no healing is possible without an acknowledgement of our responsibility as a congregation for what has happened." This was interesting because in his report Judge Ryan said the brothers failed to accept responsibility as a congregation for the abuse. He said that while the order made documents available it was "defensive" about the way it responded to complaints. Maybe the order has learned from the experience of six years of investigation and has finally come to its senses. A distinction has to be drawn between the experiences of those who were in residential care and those who were exposed to the brothers for no more than eight hours per day in one of the primary or secondary schools that the brothers ran. At least children there were able to return home to their parents each day and the potential for ritual physical or sexual abuse was lessened. But that does not lessen the seriousness of much of what went on at the normal schools or mean that it should be ignored. I repeat that I witnessed assaults regularly. I saw some boys get pretty serious beatings, although not enough to require hospitalisation, thankfully. Sometimes it happened for the most trivial of offences, such as speaking out of turn, being late for class or for being unable to answer a question correctly. Even when the boys did things seriously out of line they didn’t deserve the physical punishment that was sometimes meted out, most usually in the early years of secondary school. It didn’t happen often by the time we got to Leaving Cert, possibly because the culture in the school had changed for the better as the years went on under a more enlightened principal called Brother Tallon. I suspect the reason why the violence ebbed as we got older was because as the boys grew bigger they hit back and, on more than one occasion, got the better of the teacher. I will never forget one particular brother who was notorious for taking out his own bad humour by hitting children, particularly when he gave up smoking for lent or on Monday, when he was not charged with bringing classes to the playing fields during the afternoons for hurling. He only cheered up if he was thrashing somebody. He always picked on the younger children, in first or second year in particular, and no adult teacher ever moved to stop him. He was feared but never respected. I doubt if he cared. Some of the brothers may have enjoyed the violence, but others used it as the only way they seemed to know of enforcing control. It rarely occurred to them to reason with teenage boys. They rarely considered that the bad behaviour of the children could have been caused by a range of reasons, including difficult domestic backgrounds and learning problems, and that beatings were not going to change any of that. Worse, they gave the example to many impressionable boys that the way to establish control or to settle disputes was by the use of assault. Violence begets violence after all. WE learned quickly though that the best way to avoid assault was to keep the head down and toe the line. We were disciplined through fear. We were controlled. Some of the lay teachers followed the example set down by the brothers. They were all given a leather strap that they kept in their lockers and which some brought to their classes to put to frequent use. Corporal punishment in schools was made illegal about that time, but that didn’t stop many teachers from continuing to administer beatings. But the brothers were among the worst at it. Some seemed to think it was their right because they were always right. It was the culture of the organisation. School wasn’t all bad. Some of the teachers were very good and ambitious for us. Great friends were made in our class, often because we had common cause. The consolation we can take is that we were lucky, unlike the thousands who suffered because of the appalling practices carried out in residential homes by people who affected to care for children but who instead indulged their sadistic and perverted tendencies. Anyone who prefers not to believe that should just go and read even the summary of Sean Ryan’s fine report. The main body of the report may be too much for them to take. The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.
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