This article is from page 27 of the 2009-05-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 27 JPG
last week, following the publica- tion of a report by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. He said the report’s disturbing ac- count of systematic abuse in institu-
tions run by religious orders brought back painful memories of his own childhood.
He has recalled the type of physi- cal punishment given out by teach- ie
“I started in the school in 1956. I went to primary school at the age of six. I didn’t have too many happy days in that system,” he said.
“It was leathers, punches. One man in particular stands out. He had MoD KmOON Dates
‘“He’d get two other people to stand either side of you at the old desk and
he’d hit you into the sides.
“Now, you might say, what was wrong with that?
“First of all, it hurt. Secondly, it wasn’t a nice thing to do to anybody for any reason, let alone for getting something wrong in spelling or not being able to add a few numbers.”
The man said that he dreaded go- ing to school.
“Sometimes, after holidays, when I’d hear that the school was reopen- ing, my father used to tell me I’d be physically sick in the days before go- ing back to school,” he explained.
The man said that he told his fa- ther about the punishment but that corporal punishment was consid- ered appropriate behaviour in the Irish society of the 1950s.
“Ah sure, the thing was, they’d say that he wouldn’t have given you a clip unless you deserved it. This was the era where if you walked down the street and you saw two nuns coming, you stepped off the path completely.”
After battling depression for years and being admitted to several psy- chiatric units, the man said psychol-
ogists identified his school years as a source of immense trauma.
He said, “A lot of what happened to me, a lot of what caused the break- downs, was a build-up of major traumatic episodes from my child- hood in school.”
He added, “Obviously not every- body who’d been through my exper1- ence wouldn’t have had depression.
“Part of it was my personality as well. There are some people who soak up things and others don’t.
‘There are some tough and not so tough.”