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Why we must be Christian to these Brothers
Monday, 26 January 2009
So farewell then Christian Brothers. After 150 years, the Brothers have given control of their schools in the North over to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust Northern Ireland and have ended their day-to-day involvement.
It is certainly a sad moment for many of us who had the great fortune to be educated by the Brothers. There is undoubtedly a generation who will not remember them with the same fondness.
My father — whose age I won’t give but it is a lot more than his golf handicap — remembers being slapped by them in primary school because he was a clootie (left handed).
I, on the other hand (!), managed seven years at grammar school in Belfast and was slapped only once — by a lay teacher. (I still maintain my innocence.)
Some commentators argue that the ethos of the Christian Brothers was very nationalistic — for which you can read that they were too pro-republican.
Nothing could have been further from the truth in my experience from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The Brothers favoured the Rosary over revolution and would dearly have loved some of us to either join the order or become priests. (One of the first tasks in any language class was to learn the Hail Mary. I used to be able to recite it in French, Italian, German and Irish.)
Catholicism trumped nationalism; we were educated as Catholic Irish and not Irish Catholics.
I remember one former head Brother asking us whether a united Ireland was really important — and that was in the immediate aftermath of the Hunger Strikes.
It was hardly the question of someone trying to indoctrinate us.
That is not to say that the Brothers were partitionist. they were not; we were an Irish school; the various sporting and quiz teams took part in all-Ireland competitions and soccer was not played at all in those days.
Irish was compulsory until O-level — but then so was French, maths, English and religion.
It cannot be a coincidence either that many of the books on the curriculum were anti-war in their themes: O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock was hardly a ringing endorsement of violent republicanism; the poetry of Wilfred Owen did not speak of the glory of dying for one’s country (whatever the colour of its flag); Julius Caesar did not praise politics so much as bury them and the short stories of Heinrich Böll often showed the human tragedy of total war.
The emphasis was very much on giving a broad education and getting as many of us as possible into university — even people like myself who were academically average.
University was what we were most encouraged to achieve and that certainly created an atmosphere in which people whose working-class parents and grandparents had never attended university were coaxed into taking what was a big decision.
It meant staying out of paid employment for a couple more years and, hopefully, gaining better paid employment with a degree.
Thank you and go raibh maith agaibh, a Bhráithre Críostaí. I hope that the trust succeeds in keeping all that was best about the Christian Brothers’ tradition.
- Text Size
There is nothing Christian or brotherly about systemic child abuse, Pol.
Posted by Richard | 30.01.09, 14:57 GMT
kindly article this. I was educated in Omagh by the same Brothers and remember them as being ambitious for our progress. The day was interrupted by hourly Hail Marys. Prayers at the closing of school were unusual but thoughtful. Some of them were friendliness personified.
Posted by noel donnelly | 29.01.09, 16:32 GMT
My what a difference 30 years must have made. I was educated by the Christian Brothers at St. Marys for 7 years in the ninteen forties. They hadnt the faintest idea on how to teach. Their method was one of savage and mindless coercion, backed up with a leather strap. The lay teachers were no different. There was no effort to kindle a love of learning, quite the opposite, a fear of not learning. Languages were confined to Latin (read priesthood) and Gaelic (much spoken throughout the world). Arts as drama, music,cinema,ballet,painting, Never discussed. (Might give rise to impure thoughts). The most popular sport in the world,football, never played. Hurling and gaelic encouraged. Generally unknown outside of Ireland. Politics never discussed. The order no doubt tried hard to enforce (instill) knowledge but were misguided.
Sexual abuse, if there was any, I never heard of it.
Its a good thing that the brothers,as I knew them, are no longer in the education field.
Jim Campbell.
Posted by Jim Campbell | 29.01.09, 16:16 GMT
I experienced state and church school education from the 1950's to the 1970's - right at the heart of the so called thug-culture. In my experience, all teachers were 'thugs'; that is what our parents, society and successive Governments (up until the late 1960's) demanded of them. It was not the Sisters and Brothers dedicated to Christian education in Ireland and the UK who demanded such thuggery, the vast majority were (it seemed to me) decent, caring and - yes - genuinely loving souls (if highly driven to ensure their scholars succeeded). So those who think there was something particualrly harsh about Christian Brothers schools should have tried living through the Black Board Jungle of South East London state schools; escaping to the firm discipline of the La Salle, Saint Joseph's Academy at Blackheath, was like a revelation. Catholics, not least Irish Catholics, have no idea what a treasure they have so carelessly cast aside.
Posted by Nat | 28.01.09, 18:55 GMT
I went to Oxford street Christian Brothers school from 1941 to 1948, and it was a great foundation for learning. I agree: education accepted that we were Irish Catholics and part of a single nation - we were Irish not British. I am grateful to Brother Burns, Mr Bradley, Mr Morton. Br Sullivan who taught me the basics of reading, spelling, and arithmetic that led me to a Ph.D. in history. My thanks to you all.
Tony Mooney
Posted by Chris Mooney | 28.01.09, 13:38 GMT
I submit Pol O Muiri must be classed as a favoured child ! Like Robin, my experience of these "thugs", and by using this term I am being generous, was quite the opposite. I go back to 1940 and an unfortunate episode in my life under "the care" of a Brother at St Mary's school in Barrack Street. I could not speak Irish, consequently when I failed to respond to his continued use of the language, his strap was the solution. I played football but because it was not Gealic, I was termed as an English lover, my liking of Shakespeare was anathema to him and I, to this day consider him a religous bigot . Sadly all his colleagues fell into a similar category
Posted by Ulsterman | 27.01.09, 11:45 GMT
If you had gone through what I went through at the hands of some of these so called christian brothers, you would find it very difficult to be christian.
Posted by Robin | 27.01.09, 07:48 GMT
Pol: Thank you for a great article. I must admit when I first saw the title I squirmed as all I see are attacks on the Church but read your article with joy. I too was taught by the Christian Brothers at the De La Salle Secondary School and I enjoyed every minute of it. God bless.
Posted by Colin | 27.01.09, 01:30 GMT
If this article is an attempt at helping the "Christian Brothers" and in turn the Catholic Church of washing it's hands of helping ferment extreme Irish Nationalism in Northern Ireland it does not work. Reason being is your name "Pol O Muiri", I am very sure that this is not the name that is on your original birth certificate.
Posted by G Adams | 26.01.09, 19:40 GMT