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Founded On Fear
The tragic and deeply moving account of one man’s experience of institutional abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Letterfrack industrial school. Tyrrell never recovered from the abuse that he suffered, yet was determined that his story should be heard.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 28, 2015
"Brother Dooley beats the senior boys on the back and the legs with a walking stick. He beats John Kane so severely that he leaves the ranks and runs screaming out of the yard, he goes to lavatory and refuses to leave. He is now being beaten for a long time, four boys are ordered to carry him to the infirmary. He is bleeding from his mouth and nose… That evening we are given a lecture lasting an hour, we then say the rosary. Brother Dooley asks us to pray for him, as he is suffering from rheumatism.
The next morning, I am awake early. Brother Walsh has just returned from the chapel, he is taking six or seven lads away for being awake. It is now 6 AM. I can hear the children screaming. He has taken them to the washroom and flogged them with a stick. It is a crime to be awake before we are called."
This book is the story of Peter Tyrrell, who grew up in a school run by the Christian Brothers in Ireland. Sadly, the author committed suicide many years later, and knowing this made the book especially hard to read. I believe it was the culture of time, not the religion itself, they gave rise to these abuses. Ireland at the time, and even the rest of the world, had very different philosophies of how to raise children. Generally speaking, there were no Child protective services involved like there are today. It was a very different culture, and I'm not sure that this kind of abuse could be done today without it being known and stopped. I kept reminding myself of this, about how it's better, as I read this book – that was the only way I could get through it.
The next morning, I am awake early. Brother Walsh has just returned from the chapel, he is taking six or seven lads away for being awake. It is now 6 AM. I can hear the children screaming. He has taken them to the washroom and flogged them with a stick. It is a crime to be awake before we are called."
This book is the story of Peter Tyrrell, who grew up in a school run by the Christian Brothers in Ireland. Sadly, the author committed suicide many years later, and knowing this made the book especially hard to read. I believe it was the culture of time, not the religion itself, they gave rise to these abuses. Ireland at the time, and even the rest of the world, had very different philosophies of how to raise children. Generally speaking, there were no Child protective services involved like there are today. It was a very different culture, and I'm not sure that this kind of abuse could be done today without it being known and stopped. I kept reminding myself of this, about how it's better, as I read this book – that was the only way I could get through it.
May 11, 2024
Absolument horrible sur toute la première partie (et un peu tout du long), et super source sur plein de trucs niveau vie quotidienne et ressenti d'un enfant/d'un irlandais (+ émigré au UK) en général à l'époque.
C'est assez atroce par contre.
C'est assez atroce par contre.
August 18, 2011
A wonderful book. Made my blood boil that such monsters were allowed to run schools (any sort of schools) for so many years. I went to a Christian Brothers' school. This was a fee-paying day school where the excesses of the brothers were necessarily constrained. They (and the lay teachers) used the leather and the cane as much as they could get away with. The parents were complicit in this, as the consensus thinking in those days was that education had to be beaten into boys (and girls, I believe). I was an exemplary student, always top of the class in every subject, so I seldom received corporal punishment, but even so, I remember the ever-present threat, the trauma of watching others being beaten, and the daily grinding fear. For me, as for all those attending such schools, each day was a fearful, traumatic experience. It's only after reading Peter Tyrrell's book that I realise how deeply I was scarred by those experiences, those bitter, lost years of childhood, and how those experiences affected my in adult life.
September 7, 2014
This is one of those books I just had to read since it had so many elements I am interested in – Ireland, Catholic education and the rights of children (or in this case, the lack of them).
Read more here: http://from7eight.com/founded-on-fear/
Read more here: http://from7eight.com/founded-on-fear/
September 3, 2014
A disturbing account of the ill treatment of innocent children in the custody of the Christian brothers, highlighting society's failure to protect them. Peter Tyrrell has an important message to share through this book.
March 13, 2015
This was a pretty dire book and not told with any emotion or feelings. It was 'he said, she said'. Sounds harsh, but it felt like I've heard it all before and it wasn't particularly shocking! I couldn't wait to finish it!
September 24, 2020
Oh I love this book!
Interesting his detail memory as a child in that school was amazing, perhaps to amazing or am I missing something.
Interesting his detail memory as a child in that school was amazing, perhaps to amazing or am I missing something.
April 20, 2017
Heartbreaking
Hard, honest heartbreak account of a life destroyed by Catholic Ireland. Letterfrack Industrial school did no good for this child. Are children still suffering?
Hard, honest heartbreak account of a life destroyed by Catholic Ireland. Letterfrack Industrial school did no good for this child. Are children still suffering?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews