'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.