Some of the men they shaped and moulded . . .
THREE well-known personalities last night talked of their own experiences of the influence of the Christian Brothers on their lives.
1) Gay Byrne - broadcaster and chairman of the Road Safety Authority. Former student of Synge Street CBS
I left Synge Street in 1952 and we were one of the last generations of the school where physical punishment was part and parcel of everyday living.
Every morning I went there I would be faced with the reality that I would be belted for either one thing or another, except in 6th year where a Brother Bill O’Leary never hit us, and indeed he became a life-long friend.
Punishment would range from being hit with a hand, a stick, or a strap, to pulling up by the ears or the hair on the side of your head, but we never said a word about it at home because we would have got more of the same!
It was a very rough house but I must stress that if it wasn’t for the Christian Brothers we would never have been educated, because our parents just couldn’t afford it. To this day I am filled with wonder at the breadth of the extensive education they gave us considering there would be 40 to 50 in a classroom, with lads from allover Dublin.
There were the posh boys from places like Bray, Greystones and Foxrock; the less posh guys like me from Rialto and South Circular Road; and the lads from the Liberties whose families were stony broke.
The envelopes for the fees would go out every quarter, and I know for a fact that a lot of them came back empty, but this was all handled with great discretion.
I suppose their era has come and gone to a large extent. It is a great pity but in many ways inevitable.
2) Emmet Stagg - Labour Chief Whip and Kildare North TD. Former pupil of Ballinrobe CBS, Co Mayo.
The Christian Brothers were the greatest shower of savages and sadistic bastards I’ve met. In Ballinrobe we got the ones that had transgressed in Dublin. We were their punishment post.
Think about an 18-stone man pulling a young lad out of a seat, taking a pin from his collar and jabbing him repeatedly in the arse because he couldn’t remember a Latin word.
Not a day went by without a beating. I have a tooth missing because I was belted when I asked a question the day we did the Leaving Cert.
They are responsible for me becoming a socialist however.
There was a debating society in the school and I was once forced to give the pro side in a debate about Communism.
I read-up on George Bernard Shaw’s Socialism for Beginners and we were winning the debate when one head brother got up and gave me a clatter, saying “I won’t have any communist in this school.”
It was then I started learning all I could about Shaw, and my interest in politics was born.
The worst abuse was if you couldn’t afford the fees and applied for a dispensation. That meant getting a copy of your birth cert, which cost three shillings and sixpence. You would never be called by your name again. It was ‘three and sixpenny’ in front of everybody.
I’m delighted they’re getting out of education.
3) Gerard Mannix Flynn - Playwright and Actor. Former inmate of Letterfrack industrial school, run by the Christian Brothers.
The impact of the Christian Brothers on the Irish psyche is well documented. Some of it is positive, but a lot of it is extremely negative.
I was in Letterfrack from 1968 to 1970, and as a congregation their treatment of inmates was appalling. There was not one moment where I witnessed an act of kindness.
They might lighten up a bit at Christmas or Easter time, or on religious holidays, but that was about the best you got from them as a congregation.
It’s not that they are now pulling out of the system, you have to understand that they were the system, a system which nobody interfered with. They are removing their presence from the classroom, but they are still maintaining control.
This is damage limitation. All they are doing is getting out of a situation they totally destroyed.
Their reputation is on the floor, and their credibility is finished. They have ruined the good name they had and the good work they did in the early days by their denial of the substantive issues of abuse which were happening.
4) Noel Dempsey - Minister for Communications. Fianna Fail TD for Meath. Former Minister for Education. Former student of St Michael’s CBS, Trim, Co Meath.
I look upon my experience at the CBS as a very positive experience. I’d have absolutely no complaint. They were tough men but fair. Some were fond of using the strap but so were the lay teachers as well, sometimes even more so.
They gave me a good rounded education, which focused as much on sport as classroom subjects, something which I tried to carry forward when I was a teacher.
I do think it was inevitable that they would withdraw from the classroom. I could see it when I was Minister for Education. They were getting older and stretching themselves.
Now if they are working more on policy I think it will be of huge benefit to the education system.
They have a wealth of experience.
Conor Feehan
