Christian Brothers retreat from frontline education

Local & National

School's out for order that left such a mark on Ireland

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

By David McKittrick

An epoch in Irish education and society is coming to an end: the Christian Brothers, who over 200 years built the most formidable of reputations, are ending their day-to-day involvement in running schools.

No one disputes that the Brothers have made their mark in education but similarly no one disputes that some of them left marks – physical and psychological – on many of the boys who passed through their hands.

Their reputation for propelling promising pupils into successful careers – they have provided most of Ireland's prime ministers – stands alongside another for thumping, kicking and strapping those in their charge. They are also credited with infusing teenagers with patriotic fervour, turning out nationalist political leaders and rebel figures, from Eamon de Valera to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Some controversially contend, in fact, that the Brothers' ready resort to violence in schools set many republicans on a violent course later in life. This may be fanciful, but certainly a case can be made that in various ways the Brothers have played a part in shaping modern Ireland.

The Brothers are retreating from frontline education not because of any wave of disapproval of their behaviour but because, like other Catholic orders, their numbers have dwindled as the standing of the Irish church has gone into decline.

In recent years, it has emerged that a number of Brothers in a few institutions were involved in horrendous sexual abuse, leaving lasting scars on boys in their care. Yet while all this has cast a dark shadow over their record, contemporary Ireland has by no means lost a lingering sense of reverence for an institution which played a pivotal role in educating its young men.

"Their speciality was thumping and kicking," an eminent Catholic educational figure said yesterday. "Some also swung round and threw the blackboard duster in the direction of someone they heard talking. Didn't matter if it hit someone else. Friends of mine were knocked out cold by a punch to the head. You may not have understood algebra or trigonometry but by God you knew it off by heart. You could do it. You learnt tables off by heart.

"You knew there were 960 farthings in a pound even though there were no longer any farthings."

The Brothers owe their existence to Edmund Rice, a Waterford merchant who after the death of his wife in the early 19th century threw himself into education and charitable work. He impressed the Vatican, which lent him support so that his schools spread from Ireland to England, Australia, Canada, New York and elsewhere. The emphasis of the schools was on educating poor boys, and they also promoted the Irish language.

Rice, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996, was by all accounts a gentle and even saintly person who doubtless never envisaged the schools he founded to be either hotbeds of nationalist zealotry or places for the infliction of pain on juveniles. Yet, the claim has been made that "in teaching patriotism the Brothers created gunmen" – this may be an exaggeration, since many other factors were at work. It has, however, been said that half of those executed by Britain for their role in the rebellion of 1916 were former Christian Brothers pupils.

But many who attended Christian Brothers schools say they experienced neither excessive discipline nor any deliberate infusion of extreme nationalism.

The outgoing Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, summed up the official attitude: "We must never forget the sickening, criminal abuse of the innocent by a small minority. But equally, we cannot allow the wickedness of some to cloud the good faith and good actions of many who did so much to lift the lives of others."