Here's a short part of the article at: Catholicism's Future in Ireland | Ideafeed | February 11, 2011 | Big Think The sexual mistreatment and corporal punishment that went along with the code of purity were hidden in plain sight all along. A careful reader of James Joyce’s “Dubliners” knows this is part of Ireland’s cultural past, but violence in church-run schools was tolerated late into the 20th century. The novelist Colm Toibin, who was in a Christian Brothers school until age 15, told me: “At times it didn’t feel like there was a line between sexual abuse and corporal punishment. Every Friday one of the brothers would take a boy in front of the class, and whichever way he hit you he’d always put his hand on your testicles. We would laugh, but in fact you were in a permanent state of fear. I would vomit in the morning before going out to school. They would hit you across the face if you got a sum wrong. I suppose they did teach me to read and write and that I should be grateful, but I’m not.” Note from, TM: I grew-up in the USA and went to public schools. I would hear stories from the young boys who went to a nearby catholic school. I avoided them because it seemed like they were being abused (sexually?) and they were perpetuating the abuse.
