Christian Brothers left their mark on me and many of my old pals

I suspect the reason why the violence ebbed was because as the boys grew bigger, they hit back and, on more than one occasion, got the better of the teacher.

Very occasionally I got a thump, too, usually for speaking out of turn. You learnt quickly, though, that the best way of avoiding assault was to keep the head down

THE Christian Brothers left their mark on hundreds of thousands of Irish boys. From personal experience I can say they did so by choosing from a range of weapons including leather straps, metre-long wooden sticks, bamboo shoots and their fists.