More tales of strapping boys

The gardening season is upon us with spring flowers gaily adorning the borders and even the cheerful sound of mowers at work on the grass in this unexpectedly mild spell of late February. But what else would we expect on the South Devon coast at Budleigh Salterton?

My gardening pleasures and the return of Spring's fresh innocence ought to combine, or so you'd think, to blow away the bad memories of nearly 60 years ago.

Maybe it's my recent correspondence with ex-Cricklade victim Gerard Lidgey, mentioned at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bother-those-brothers.html  that's preventing me from putting them all behind me. Or perhaps it's seeing the growing folder of 'Assignments waiting' on my computer which convinces me that the job of recording the unsavoury history of the Irish Christian Brothers is not yet over.

Whatever...

Here's a paragraph from a recent email sent by one of our contemporaries at Prior Park Prep School who's happy for me to post his account on Millstones. I'll call him George because he'd rather not be identified. 

"I do recall receiving 26 of the strap in one term from a Brother Hegarty for not knowing my homework, that in later years seemed excessive," he writes.

And here's his account of another of those occasions akin to public executions favoured by the Islamic Republic of Iran and other dark places on this planet.

"I also recall the whole school being called to witness the giving of six of the best of the strap on bare buttocks of some poor soul in the basement, that shocked me."

And then we have George's memory of the gastronomic peculiarities introduced by the Prep School's sadistic headmaster Br B.  

"I was also one of those on the table by the servery in the dining hall made to eat one spoon of porridge each day, and being on that table made to feel inferior to the rest of the school."

Not particularly unpleasant, I thought, as a daily porridge-eater. But George's point is the psychological damage inflicted on small children by some of those Christian Brothers, more long-lasting in its way than the weals left on hands and occasionally buttocks by physical punishments.

Fear, a crippling sense of inferiority, a lifelong mistrust of one's parents, a permanent dislike of religion... these are some of the less obvious aspects of the legacy left by the teaching orders of the Catholic Church, still not fully recognised by the ecclesiastical authorities and, above all, the Vatican. 

Pictured above is the Irish Christian Brothers' best friend, a strap made up of several thicknesses of leather. These implements were supposedly weighted with pieces of metal. There seems to be plenty of other evidence in support of this view. See for example  http://ezinearticles.com/?Christian-Brothers,-My-Story.&id=2450603

A helpful statement

Michael Downes, aged about 7: a photo taken at his village school in Falfield, Gloucestershire.  The move to Prior Park Preparatory School, Cricklade, came as a brutal surprise in the following year

STATEMENT BY MICHAEL NICHOLAS DOWNES


Cricklade and the Irish Christian Brothers
By Michael Downes 
Date of birth: 16 December 1946
Prior Park Preparatory School in September 1954 aged 8
Left the school in July 1958 aged 11

My earliest memory of being punished at Cricklade was when I was beaten with a strap on the hand by Br B for not bringing a pencil to the dining room where we were about to take an exam. I was eight years old and did not know what the word exam meant. I've always remembered this episode.

Apart from the various later strappings that I endured for trivial offences, mainly by Br B, I remember being forced to eat up every scrap of food on the plate at meal times. On one occasion I had to eat a mixture of porridge and fried bread and tomatoes.

Another personal experience I remember is of the aged Br A - later apparently revered at the school as 'The Saint' - feeling my private parts as he sat with his hand up my shorts. This was done with other boys standing around. I cannot recall the names of any witnesses. However I have been in contact with another former pupil at Cricklade who experienced similar treatment while in bed.

More traumatic as a personal experience was to see other pupils being savagely punished. This created a brutalising atmosphere.

I recall particularly a boy who used to wet the bed being dressed up in a sailor's outfit and taken from classroom to classroom where he was beaten with a strap on the hand by Br B at least four times. I know the boy's name but feel that he should be asked if he is prepared to be publicly identified.

Worse was the time when a boy was beaten in public for soiling his underpants. We were told that the garment had been sent back by the laundry which had refused to wash it. The boy was made to lie over a vaulting horse in front of the whole school, as I recall, and then beaten on the buttocks by Br B, probably with a strap. I can't remember whether he was naked or how many times he was beaten. Again, I know the boy's name but have reservations about identifying him. In this and the above case the pupil was withdrawn from the school after the episodes.

I do remember Br B kicking a naked boy in the shower room for some reason or other.

And I have a vivid memory of Br B's violent behaviour towards pupils when he came across two boys who had been fighting. He insisted that they stop and shake hands. When one of them refused, Br B slapped him hard in the face, and continued to slap him for what seemed like over a minute while the boy refused to obey. I can't remember how the matter ended. I think I remember the name of the boy who refused; it would seem wrong to forget such a hero!

I have to say that I cannot remember whether Gerard Lidgey suffered in such ways. I seem to remember that he got into trouble for making what was thought to be a bomb, perhaps because mercury was involved.

There is clearly a problem with these reminiscences because of lack of corroborative evidence. The boy who was groped in bed by Br A lives abroad and has told me that he does not want the police to be informed.

I felt that in spite of the fact that those these events took place many years ago, and even though Br B and Br A are dead, the police should have a record in case my evidence ever became useful in helping another victim of the Christian Brothers who had suffered more severely than I had.

As I have recorded on my Millstones blog at http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/criminal-investigation.html I was interviewed at my local police station in Exmouth on 13 October 2010 by DC Mike Laybourne. To my surprise, I found it quite an upsetting experience. Mike was extremely sympathetic. He tells me that he has liaised with Detective Sergeant David Martin, of Wiltshire Police at Hampton Park West, Melksham, Wilts. Tel: 0845 408 7000. I was told that my case number is Case number 247 of 5-10-10.
 
I am not interested in obtaining compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, especially if it's a case of the UK taxpayer having to foot the bill. However I was keen to 'bother the Brothers' and the Catholic Church for the shameful way in which past sins have not been swiftly and openly acknowledged. The Catholic hierarchy and perhaps particularly the Pope have increasingly come to be seen as lacking the moral fibre to deal with the problem of clerical abuse within the Catholic Church.

I wholly believe the contents of the above statement to be true.



Signed:

Michael Downes

10 February 2012