If you believe THE IRISH TIMES some 168,000 children were shut away in heartless institutions over 30 years in the part of Ireland vacated by the Brits. (The unwriiten assumption is that that under the Brits,things were better there for children pre 1922. And better in Ireland’s neighbouring island ever since.)
In fact the IRISH TIMES statistics were
grossly inflated, and they knew it. The true figure was something
under 40,000. Ireland was not unique amongst English speaking countries with Catholic or Protestant cultures in its
treatment or mistreatment of unmarried mothers and their children. Within
Ireland, Catholic and Protestant
institutions shared the same values and practices, good and bad. Some
institutions were organically linked to the IRISH TIMES.
I have read many memoirs by men who went to
British Public Schools. Floggings, Buggery and bullying in the most
expensive and prestigious ones seem to
have been endemic. Not all of it voluntary. I was two years in Rockwell College
and was unaware of any buggery, although caning, strictly limited, was used as a sanction. There was no fagging. I
think that practice was confined to Britain to prepare boys to shoulder
the “White Man’s Burden” among
the lesser breeds. I understand that at Eton, Douglas Hurd was an
enthusiastic flogger of his fags.
The Republic outlawed corporal punishment in schools years before Britain. It remained
in the Six Counties for some more years. Reading excerpts from THE TIMES
(LONDON) of 1920 I see that the courts
were sentencing men to being whipped by a Cat o’ Nine Tails. I don’t think that
punishment was inflicted in Ireland by a
Civil Court,or even a Military one after 1921. I’m subject to a more humane
correction if found wrong!
An IRISH WOMAN’S DIARY last week recalls the
1967 Abbey Theatre staging of The Loves
of Cass Maguire by Brian Friel, which outraged a
female busybody who was quietly encouraged by
Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, a Bete Noire to the ultra-liberal IRISH TIMES
which then
included District Inspector Swanzy, murderer of
Lord Mayor McCurtain of Cork., on its Roll of Honour. Its readers are expected
to believe that
Theatre and Literature were freer of in Britain
than in Ireland back in 1967. They may well believe it but they would be badly
mistaken.
Brian Friel would have had to submit his script
to England’s Lord Chamberlain before his play could be staged at the time. In
1968 the 300 year plus restriction was
removed. I had just met a young woman (now my wife) who was doing post-graduate
training at London University and staying
in a Convent hostel. I accompanied her and a party of young women including a
Chinese nun who loved pop music to the the
musical “HAIR” the most celebrated beneficiary of the new Liberalism.
I believe it was a revelation to my companions. It was re-staged a couple of years ago in London, but folded
after a couple of days.
My BLOG “LARKIN’ ABOUT – MUSINGS FOR ST VALENTINE’S
DAY deals with contrasting attitudes of Hampstead and Bantry to James Bond in the 1960s, which should enlighten
readers of THE IRISH TIMES.
Letters favoured by the Editor of the IRISH
TIMES sneer at the EMERGENCY declared by the Oireachtas in 1939, allowed for
by the Constitution enacted by the (presumptuous)
citizens a couple of years earlier, to protect them from embroilment in
Britain’s falling out with Hitler (whose
accession to power was welcomed by the paper in 1933.)
Apparently Irish media should have ignored the 1939 Hurling Final and referred to the THE SECOND WORLD WAR
on 4th September and to Jack Lynch as “the
future Taoiseach?” In fact the War was described as a War, but reported in
a way which would give no belligerents a
pretext for attacking Ireland.
Though British agents have planted bombs in
Dublin and Monaghan and other parts of the Republic since 1972 when they killed Dublin bus-men behind a CIE canteen,
a letter-writer can thank the Brits for saving Ireland from attack by Russian aircraft in international air-space
and following international rules, and sneering at Ireland’s
lack of lethal aircraft.
Incidentally, isn’t Fintan O’Toole the son of a
CIE Busman? If he has ever written of British
aggression in Ireland I have missed it.
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