tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109033.post1206044449744520436..comments2024-03-24T08:26:00.732+00:00Comments on photopol: Coláiste MhuirePólóhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661092894104384856noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109033.post-42731553865634126002024-02-11T08:53:59.287+00:002024-02-11T08:53:59.287+00:00Hi Sean. Came across your comment. I was also in 1...Hi Sean. Came across your comment. I was also in 1969 class and on the same hurling teams as you. Hope you are keeping well. Michael Lenihan (Micheal O' Leineachain)Michael Lenihannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109033.post-27525918611769339312022-11-11T20:41:00.434+00:002022-11-11T20:41:00.434+00:00Hi John,
Bizarrely my name is also John Phelan, th...Hi John,<br />Bizarrely my name is also John Phelan, though known as Sean O Faolain , while attending Colaiste Mhuire from 1964 to 1969.<br />I agree with much of your comments on how some Christian Brothers came to be sadistic psychopaths.<br />Overall I was lucky enough to be a reasonably good student, good at games and played for the Dublin minors while in school. This allowed me to avoid sme, but not all, of the violence meted out by the likes of Kinsella. This man was mad, and even carried out beatings up and down the stairs. He was so mad that he was oblivious to the harm and fear he generated. Proof of that can be gleaned from him approaching me in Crome Park a few yeas after leaving school. He preferred his hand towards me and greeted me as though I was a long lost friend. He was shocked when I rejected his handshake and Todd him what an unpleasant specimen he was. <br />Another deranged creature, masquerade ng as a Gaelic academic, was LP O Cathnia. He arrived as a Head Brother in my final year. His modus operandi centred around randm violence. So outrageous was his carry on that a few of us let it be known that we intended to confront him if he was violent again. Word of this got back to the Monastery, and he never struck anyone again while I was in the school. But this guy had previous form. He arrived in Colaiste Mhuire at 44 years of age. He had been moved around Ireland at such a rate that he had already been in schools in Waterford, Kells, Tralee, Galway, Newry, Dundalk and at least 3 other schools in Dublin. <br />So, like other contributors, I too have good memories of such as Michael Judge, my French teacher, Brother Kelly and many of my fellow pupils. But the only bad eggs left a pervasive whiff of violence abut the school. I Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109033.post-81457342576605594972022-11-09T16:21:21.017+00:002022-11-09T16:21:21.017+00:00I came across your blog while searching for Brothe...I came across your blog while searching for Brother Mathews online.<br />I attended Colaiste Mhuire, Parnell Sq. from Sept 1959 until June 1964. I wish I could say it was a pleasant five years…. but it was not. Although I personally did not suffer a lot of physical abuse I did witness it being visited on other daltai. Nevertheless even this daily expectation that, today might be my turn, was a constant fear.<br />Let me say that I am not generally a subscriber to clergy bashing or indeed Irish Christian Brother bashing. I am inclined to make allowances for the times that were in it. Nevertheless upon mature recollection I have reached my own conclusions regarding my time there.<br />Christian Brothers were recruited from the National Schools in the year preceding year to the primary cert, when the target audience were boys, typically pre pubescent 11 year olds. Secondary schools were invariably fee paying in those days, and if a promising young Jack or Tommy had parents who couldn’t afford to send him to secondary school, they may have thought they were doing the right thing to “ encourage” him to get a better future and a fuller education by joining the Christian Brothers. Sure couldn’t he always leave when he had had the benefit of their system ?<br />In theory this might have seemed a good idea, but it didn’t factor in the brothers protective ways to mind their investment in Jack or Tommy. He would be institionalised by the system long before he had a degree or a H dip. Not allowed home for three years after joining, except for the funeral of a parent or a sibling, and even then only for the actual day. Thereafter only allowed home for a couple of weeks in the summer but with the proviso that he remain in clerical garb.<br />This in my opinion, resulted in the many cases of sexual frustration, often causing the exceptional levels of physical, and some levels of sexual deviance evident in many of the Christian Brothers I came into daily contact while a pupil in Colaiste Mhuire.<br />Brother Mathews was an example of the latter kind, if you were unfortunate enough to arrive into first year still in short pants, you would find yourself very much the object of his special attention. He would enter the class and write something on the board and then pick an unfortunate and slide his tall frame into the double bench, forcing the lads companion out of the other side. Then he would direct the displaced student to go to the blackboard to reply to the question there. This allowed Br. Mathews to turn his attention to the short trousered victim.<br />Milo was a great teacher, but very short on patience and given to sudden fits of temper, often descending into serious violent assaults on an offending pupil. This was eventually explained to me in confidence by my chemist father who was aware of his medical history.<br />I left the Colaiste after the leaving cert but have few happy memories of my time there. <br />John Phelan<br />johnphelan.redshed@gmail.com <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109033.post-84581504279694068072016-12-27T15:11:57.843+00:002016-12-27T15:11:57.843+00:00Bhí Sean O'Donnell lán go béal le cac agus ba...Bhí Sean O'Donnell lán go béal le cac agus ba náireach an rud é don Oirish Toimes an t-alt sin a fhoilsiú gan freagra. Ní raibh an scoil foirfe, nó gar dó bheith, ach nuair a luaitear Babs, Judge (cé nár thaitin an sean-mhnáchas a bhain leis liomsa) agus daoine uaisle cosúil le Hamill, Plank, Órla, Milo, Piggy agus go leor eile ní fíor in aon chur an méid a bhí sa nuachtán. <br />@Fiachra<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18045911539508164345noreply@blogger.com