"We have to move on in life." Really?

The strap seemed to be an essential teaching aid for the Christian Brothers

The crack and the sting of a heavy leather strap as it hits your outstretched reddened fingers, the fear you feel as you watch one of your classmates being slapped around the head or beaten on the buttocks at a whole-school punishment assembly, the grotesque sensation of a teacher's gnarled old fingers caressing your scrotum... these are personal memories from nearly 60 years ago which have thankfully receded, especially on a beautiful day in June when I'm more preoccupied by the plight of my drought-stricken lawn or the blackspot on my roses.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster

And of course some former pupils of the Christian Brothers have no such memories of their schooldays, either through luck or because they've managed successfully to blot them out. As the Archbishop of Westminster, Mgr Vincent Nichols told me, he has "no complaints" about the education he received in the 1950s at St Mary's College, Crosby, the Christian Brothers' Grammar School that he attended in Liverpool.
http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/blinkered-archbishop.html

The College was established as a boys' school in 1919 by the Christian Brothers and became a direct grant grammar school in 1946. When direct grants were abolished by the 1974-9 Labour Government the College became an independent school and is a member of the Headmasters' Conference. It began teaching girls in the sixth form in 1983 and became fully co-educational in 1989.

St Mary's College coat of arms

St Mary's College is now administered by laypersons and ceased to be one of the Christian Brothers' schools in January 2006 on becoming an independent charity. Although it is now run as an independent trust the school remains committed, as noted on its website, "to supporting the spiritual, educational and charitable principles of Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers movement." http://www.stmarys.ac/

Archbishop Nichols' words surprised me just a bit in view of what I've been reading about his old school in accounts by former pupils. Wikipedia may not be the ideal forum for establishing the truth about such matters, but at least some of its contributors are ready to testify in public by giving their names.

St Mary's College, Crosby

There's Eddie Hulme, for example, who believes in supporting "those who have documented what went on at this school so that no ever forgets." He points out that in today's society "if this behaviour was to take place those responsible would be in prison and for some be on the sex offenders register for life." He saw The Mount, the St Mary's prep school where he started in 1967, as "a grooming ground for what would occur at senior school."

"Try going home after a day at school and you can't pick anything up in your hands as they are still bruised and glowing from the strikes of a leather strap with a piece of metal inserted into it to make it harder and more painful," he recalls. "Thank God my parents let me leave in 1976 and didn't insist I stay." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:St_Mary%27s_College%2C_Crosby

Or Paddy Mckenna who attended St Mary's College from 1970 to 1974 "and hated every nano second," recalling a regime of "verbal taunting, physical pain, tears and the inevitable destruction of self esteem." He believes that "most pupils learned to be invisible or sycophantic, laughing at daily humiliations of their peers, thankful that they themselves were not on the receiving end of some pedant's 'wit' or violent outbust."

"To those that say that it wasn't that bad, I would reply that you were either very good at games, or academically brilliant or good at not getting noticed," states Paddy Mackenna. "Usually 'not getting noticed' meant making sure that someone else did, so shit stirring and the ability to drop someone else into the shit was a recognised survival skill." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:St_Mary%27s_College%2C_Crosby

Former pupil Tim Spooner, as I have noted elsewhere, has even set up St Mary's College Crosby Abuse Witness archive at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110624368948881

Another internet site notes that although corporal punishment was outlawed in 1986 in State schools, some independent schools, such as St. Mary's, retained its use until as late as 1998. "Humiliation and physical punishment were the basis of discipline within the school," it alleges. http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/St_Mary%27s_College,_Crosby#Discipline

Better known, because it was published in mainstream media, is the account in The Guardian of 23 April 1998 by former World in Action editor Steve Boulton. Memorably recalling his Latin teacher Brother Brickley as "a black-clad threshing machine," who "flailed at his pupils to bang Latin into them," Boulton also dwells on the theme of sexual abuse by staff, "a sad and furtive business" as he calls it. http://www.nospank.net/n-b54.htm

John Birt's autobiography, The Harder Path, describes what he calls "a white-water ride of tumbles and excitements" which included his education at the hands of the Christian Brothers

And yet... and yet... St Mary's College is undoubtedly a successful school which has educated a formidably impressive list of ex-pupils. Not just the present Archbishop of Westminster, but Lord John Birt, Director-General of the BBC, the diplomat Sir Ivor Roberts, the poet Roger McGough... the list goes on and on.

So can't we moaners just 'get over it'? One former pupil who thinks that we should is outraged by the complaints made by what he calls "a small group of vociferous, angry and apparently traumatised Old Boys/Girls" who are apparently planning to record the history of the school.

"I was strapped at St. Mary's relentlessly in the first year by brothers and lay staff alike but learned my lesson," he writes. "We have to move on in life and look at our past as moulding or contributing to our present. So those that pathetically dwell on this "punishment" issue need to move on too and recognise the value, the service, the skills, the achievements the school and its teachers brought to many impecunious Catholic families in north Liverpool over several generations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:St_Mary%27s_College%2C_Crosby

Yes, I've no doubt that the horrors of my own education by the Christian Brothers contributed to making me a more resilient person. But they also contributed a bit of possibly too unhealthy mistrust of people, a slightly bewildered sense of betrayal by my parents and a personal scepticism about the Catholic Church's contribution to the world.

A former pupil who attended The Mount and then St Mary's College from 1979 to 1990 is currently in the process of making a complaint to the police about physical abuse at Saint Mary's College in that period. Strapping, including the use of Scottish tawses, punching, throwing and slapping are among the forms of assault on children which he remembers. He has mentioned one particular Christian Brother at The Mount who resorted to taking pupils to a basement for beatings as the crying was bothering other members of staff and disturbing lessons.

Clare McDonald at Sefton CID has asked that anyone who wishes to speak informally and confidentially about what they saw or experienced to contact her on 0151 709 6010

'Joe's Jailhouse' discovered

The coat of arms of St Joseph's College, Blackpool

This Millstones site started with the chance discovery shortly after Easter 2010 of the saccharine and lying obituary for Christian Brother B. I along with most of his pupils remember Br B as a disturbed sadist during his time as Superior of Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, Wiltshire.

Catholics and non-Catholics were already appalled by news of the shambles at the Vatican as the Holy Father's advisors shocked the world with their twists and turns over the issue of clerical child abuse.

Written by his Christian Brother colleagues, the so-called obituary appears on the website of the St Joseph's College (Blackpool) Association at http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/obitdaly.htm

Frederick Keating, Archbishop of Liverpool, was responsible for inviting Christian Brothers from Ireland to run St Joseph's College
Bizarrely, St Joseph's College started life in 1860 as St Mary's School for girls, in Raikes Parade, Blackpool. The school grew rapidly and by 1880 was accepting boys. In 1900 the boys' section became a separate entity as St Joseph's College and in 1923 Archbishop Frederick Keating (1859-1928) invited the Irish Christian Brothers in Liverpool to take over its running. They were to remain at St Joseph's until they were forced to leave in 1975, when the school became co-educational. The Christian Brothers' constitution meant that the Congregation was unable to teach girls.

The St Joseph's College Association website at http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/ is a useful gathering of material relating to the school. There are classified photographic archives, two chapters of a history of the school and loads of personal memories and tributes to both former pupils and staff. Among the latter there were by many accounts Christian Brothers who were respected as excellent teachers and genial characters.

For St Joseph's College enjoyed much success in the Blackpool area. Its well-known ex-pupils include George Carman QC (1929-2001), the American film and TV actor John Mahoney (b.1940), Tom McNally (b.1943), ennobled as Baron McNally and Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, the self-made businessman and former owner of Blackpool Football Club Owen Oyston (b. 1934), the business visionary and motivational speaker Paul Sloane (b. 1950) and Lawrence Whalley, Crombie Ross Professor of Mental Health at the University of Aberdeen.

Yet even the College's historian, a former pupil of the early 1960s, remarks on the "deterioration in moral values" at St Joseph's which characterised its decline in the later years. The school in his view was already "morally bankrupt" when Brother William Ignatius O'Carroll took over in 1958, determined to embark on a building programme which through his "ineptitude" and his desire for "eternal glory" made St Joseph's College "financially bankrupt" and brought about its downfall. http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/chapter1.htm

Interestingly, Brother Ignatius's obituary, written by one of his fellow-Brothers paints a very different picture of the man, attributing just about every possible virtue to him and claiming that he "successfully" completed his full term of office at St Joseph's. http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/obitcarroll.htm

The malign influence of the Christian Brothers at St Joseph's College is clearly stated by Professor Whalley, another 1960s former pupil who writes of "the many boys whose education was sullied not thrilled by the school." In his view the College by that time had become "an anachronism," with many of the senior pupils realising that "the Brothers’ near total ignorance of rapid social change in England – at least 20 years before Ireland’s – provided a poor preparation for our adult life in late 20th century Britain." http://www.stjosephsblackpool.com/whalleyL.htm

The biography of George Carman QC by his son Dominic did not paint a flattering picture of the Christian Brothers at St Joseph's College
Yet well before the 1960s, a former St Joseph's College pupil who became known as one of Britain's best known and most successful QCs would have testified to some of the unsavoury practices of the Christian Brothers. George Carman (1929-2001) was sent to St Joseph's at the age of eight at a time when it was apparently said of the school's food that "it was a question of eat or beat, often both." He ran away and was later sent to the Lancashire Diocesan Seminary near Wigan, returning to St Joseph's at the age of 16. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/george-carman-728729.html

Even his son Dominic had been unaware of what he describes as "the brutality and probable sexual abuse endured by young George at the hands of the Irish Christian Brothers" in the biography of his father No Ordinary Man, published in 2002. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/nov/16/featuresreviews.guardianreview38

Not surprisingly many memories recorded by the St Joseph's College Association website often reflect the darker side of school life from which pupils suffered in the past, leaving them often with considerable bitterness and unhappiness in their adult lives.

Some statistics were quoted to me by a former pupil of the College who has over the years been in contact with 400-500 ex-'Holy Joe's' inmates: 25% thought of it as a good school; 25% are neutral in their view of it; 50% "can't bear to think of it" and are "too traumatised to speak about it."

"The place was riddled with paedophiles," believes my informant, and I have no reason to doubt him.

A "fraternal initiative", but will it whitewash the Christian Brothers?

His Holiness Pope Benedict, presiding over a Church still in turmoil over the clerical child abuse crisis

Following his promise to Irish Catholics in March 2010 that an investigation would address chronic clerical child abuse in Ireland it's been reported that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a panel of nine prelates to deal with the handling of abuse cases in Ireland. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/31/pope-irish-catholic-abuse-investigation_n_595541.html

The Pope invited "all the members of the Irish Catholic community to support this fraternal initiative." That's an appropriate way of describing it, since the Irish Christian Brothers were, more than any other Catholic organisation, responsible for the physical and sexual abuse of children.

The statue of Blessed Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers, in Callan, Ireland

The Congregation of Christian Brothers, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice, opened its first school at Waterford, Ireland, in 1802. Only recently have its victims begun to speak out to reveal shocking facts indicating that sadistic and paedophile tendencies were endemic in many institutions run by the Brothers.

The strap, a traditional teaching aid for Christian Brothers and an emblem of their reputation as child abusers

The missionary zeal of the founder and his fellow-Brothers over the last two centuries may have established the Congregation's reputation for effective teaching in schools all over the world, but many of its pupils paid a high price. Beatings, humiliating punishments and sexual assaults should not play a part in any school curriculum. They were a common feature in Christian Brothers' schools not just in Ireland, but in every country where the Congregation had a presence, including Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK.

So while the Pope's panel of prelates and other good Catholics will focus on abuses in Ireland, many of the Christian Brothers' victims believe that it should investigate in depth the activities of this most Irish of religious orders. In how many cases, for example, were brotherly abusers who had been caught out at schools in the UK discreetly transferred to 'safe houses' back in Ireland, often with the connivance of bishops?

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, is the most senior Catholic cleric in England and Wales. He has no complaints about his own education by the Christian Brothers

How rigorous will this aspect of the panel's investigation be when one of its senior members is the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols?

This is the prelate who was reported in October 2003, following a BBC programme about clerical child abuse, as saying that there is "no evidence" to support the view that the Catholic Church's files on child sexual abuse should be "opened to independent scrutiny." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3196222.stm

This former Christian Brothers' pupil at St Mary's College, Crosby, has stated publicly that he has "no complaints about the education we received."

Either the Archbishop's memory is at fault or he was one of the lucky ones. In another UK Christian Brothers' school, not too far away from Crosby, I was told by a former pupil that as many as 50% of the children who had been taught by the Brothers at that institution said that their education had been a traumatic and damaging experience which had marked them for life.