In Reply to: Re: Physical abuse in Castlebar posted by Calk on June 04, 2009 at 06:35:40:

I can remember my first few days at school in the soldiers barracks well enough to have witnesses mysel at first hand what looked painful and frightening to me anyway, me been yo impessionable and wondering what the Hell was in store for me later on down the track. One day outside on the concorse there were several classes of boys lined up in formation of four or more abreast of each other; At the head the Bros' were in charge of them, appearently trying to prevent any chatter, a few of the boys got singled out for been culprits and received punishment, one lad had his ear twisted and yet another had his hair pulled from the top by a fist-fastened grasp, the Brother then made a showy display of letting the strands of hair fall to the ground from his outstretched hand. I know this would have really hurt any person, and it but the wind up me bigtime, but I was also too far away from the action to see if there was any hair letting been extracted in reality. I did see another young fellow get his sideburn yanked upwards which I imagined was not so pleasant to be on the recieving end of it. After that I never saw any more of thet conduct at all ever again I believed myself that changes had been implemented from about that time onward, although as yet to be seen. I received the cane at school because when asked why I had not completed homework I would reply that I had no excuse,but in reality I wasn't able too. I had elder siblings but they never helped me out. I did not find any of the brothers to be cruel or too heavy handed with the boys. I feel thankful today to them for trying to teach me anything. After I learned the alphabet I was able to read comics and later newspapers and books so I educated myself enough to get by in the World. As I said I never had a secondary education or even went to technical school either which would have been best move for me I think. I was overjoyed to be away from my painful and unhappy childhood in the classroom in primary school that I perhaps made a mistake by not giving myself another chance at the technical school, who knows I might have been handy with my hands and might have enjoyed it there!