School wants apology from McFadden

A DUBLIN school has demanded an apology from pop star Brian McFadden over alleged references to brutality by Christian Brothers there in his latest video.

The singer’s record company Sony BMG has replaced the video for “Irish Son” with a version which makes no reference to the school name.

The move last week followed complaints by St Fintan’s High School in Sutton about a scene in McFadden’s video, which began airing earlier this month.

As he stops in a taxi outside a school, he sings the following line: “We were warped by the Christian Brothers/In the cell blocks at our schools. Get a handprint on your skin/Before you break their rules. Go hit me now that I’m twice your size. Brushed off the accusations, and bowed before your lies.”

McFadden then stares at a teacher outside the gates and, as he reaches the chorus, the video shows a sign on the railings which reads: “St Fintan’s School for Boys.”

The video version sent to television stations last week no longer includes the school name sign.

Although it was intended to be fictitious, St Fintan’s principal Dick Fogarty said the video has damaged the school’s good name.

“The singer and his company should disassociate St Fintan’s from the video and the allegations of the song, and they should apologize for the damage they have caused us here,” he said.

Mr McFadden was not a student of the school, whose past pupils include singer Ronan Keating and novelist Roddy Doyle, but he lives just three miles away in Portmarnock.

“We have not had any Christian brothers teaching here since 1986 but we still maintain the ethos of Edmund Rice who set up the order,” Mr Fogarty said.

In a statement, Mr McFadden’s record company made clear no reference to St Fintan’s High School was intended in the video.

“Until receipt of St Fintan’s letter, neither Sony BMG nor Brian McFadden’s representatives were aware of the school, and had at all times assumed that the school name, as shown in the promotional video, was fictitious,” the statement said.

“The reference to the school was unintentional and coincidental. As soon as we were made aware of the fact, the video was retrieved from all TV stations, and the shot removed from the video and a new version re-serviced to all stations,” it concluded.

Despite personal difficulties with the break-up of his marriage to Kerry McFadden in September, Brian McFadden’s celebrated topping the charts last month with “Real to Me”, his first single since splitting from Westlife earlier this year.