MORE SHAME OF THE DE LA SALLES 12th June 2021.

Excerpts below from a survivor of the De La Salles.  It’s from the Irish Examiner and the full article can be read at the link below. I believe Brother Laurence Hughes is responsible for the DLS in Ireland as well as Britain.  That same order that today’s St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, still likes to be associated with by saying it’s ‘In the La Sallian Tradition’

Whatever happens to Hughes – I predict he will retire soon –  the whole DLS order needs investigating, just as the Benedictines were investigated by IICSA and the current Scottish Inquiry. AND whether all connections with St Joseph’s, Ipswich, have been severed. I suspect there’s an unofficial connection just as there was with the Benedictines at Ampleforth.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-40312103.html?type=amp

My education was non-existent. I suffered severe mental and emotional trauma at age of six and seven — the consequences of which only became real when my own six-year-old son started school.

As was common in Ireland then, no one at home believed me. In fact, I was made to feel responsible for my abuse. This was counter-trauma, I’ve since learned.

I’ve asked for an education from the De La Salle order. I was treated with utter contempt by a representative. The order didn’t have the courage to meet with me in person, so they sent a messenger to scold and embarrass me. All I was asking for was a chance to be educated.

I am the remains of a beautiful little boy who was violated and has been in hiding ever since. Who had the same chances of surviving this
valley of tears as any other privileged middle-class farmer’s son in 1966.

I am a victim. I was used by an adult, whose job it was to care for and nurture me (nurture, care, console were words I didn’t know existed then). His job, as directed by the Department of Education and the De La Salle order, was to educate. But like thousands of others, he did the opposite.

A 22-year-old brother of the De La Salle order realised one of his fantasies with the help of my little six-year-old classmates. I was the centre of this fantasy.

His use of me continued for two years. Just two years was the entire time he spent in the school and the order. When he left Macroom he applied to the Vatican and was released from the order.

Where is he now, I’ve often wondered? Has he had a family? Did he enter another profession? Is he happy?

Has he continued to abuse?

The Catholic Church is an organisation whose sole reason for existence is to make money and to continue to wield power. Male dominance over utterly helpless women and children.

I’m sorry for myself that I didn’t have an education. Other members of my family did.

The Catholic Church failed a young man from Leitrim. They failed the De La Salle order and they failed the Department of Education.

I have tried and failed countless times to educate myself. I am the victim. I have been failed. But I’m not a failure.

BROTHER LAURENCE HUGHES –UPDATE JUNE 12 2021

A new testimony just received concerning Hughes. That makes a total of four testimonies of physical abuse against this man who is the current head of the De La Salle Order in Britain and Ireland.

James commented on BROTHER LAURENCE HUGHES   Brother Laurence Hughes , He should leave the order and retire . I am a old boy from St Joseph’s Ipswich. He beat a boy around the head at the swimming pool & gave him six of the best with the slipper. He is a sadist. I know the boys name , I watched what happened to him . This is 43 years later. Approve

SCOTTISH CHILD ABUSE INQUIRY – DE LA SALLE BROTHERS

The institutions highlighted in bold were announced as being added to the Inquiry’s investigations in March 2020

1. Roman Catholic orders

• De La Salle Brothers
  • St Joseph’s, Tranent
  • St Ninians, Gartmore, Stirlingshire
  • Kenmure St Mary’s Boys’ School, Bishopbriggs
  • St Mungo’s, Mauchline, Ayrshire
  • St John’s Boys’ School, Shettleston

There are numerous Catholic orders of ‘holy’ monks and nuns listed, but I’m only mentioning the DLS here.

All these are new names to me. There have been others mentioned elsewhere – DLS approved schools for example

It seems the crimes of the De La Salle order are truly endless.  If this was any other group, other than Catholic, it would be banned as a criminal organisation.

Yet St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, today,  is proud to be IN THE LA SALLIAN TRADITION

That’s like saying IN THE GARY GLITTER TRADITION

You really have no sense of shame to be PROUD to be associated with paedophiles

I’m amazed that your current pupils have not protested at this vile connection that you are so proud of.

DE LA SALLE SCHOOL LIVERPOOL – MISSING BOY

This was a post from a Survivor of a De La School in Liverpool in the 1980s.

Presumably it’s now the DLS Academy in Carr Lane East, Liverpool which is still being run by the DLS.

I felt it should have a separate post for two reasons. Firstly, in case it helps to highlight or explain the disappearance of a missing boy the author mentions: Mark Garvey.

Secondly, because it highlights how there is so much more to come out yet where Catholic abuse is concerned. Thus there were two missing children from my era connected with the Catholic community. (Not the De La Salles) I don’t have enough hard information (yet) to go into details and I don’t want to distract from this important post.

But my premise is that ‘brutal sadistic paedophiles’ of whom there were plenty at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, don’t necessarily know when or how to stop at ‘just’ abuse. So there are some potentially awful implications.

For this reason, the De La Salle Order when in Ipswich, the Knights of St Columba in Ipswich who backed the DLS,  St Joseph’s lay teachers from the 60s to the 80s (one of whom used a cat o’ nine whip on a child – see my summary) all need properly investigating.

It’s all on my SUMMARY THREE PAGES ready for investigators to look at.

Hello, i just want to mention i too went to a De La Salle school in Liverpool although it was not a boarding school their were Brothers, of worst sort you could imagine. They were brutal sadistic pedophiles in which One of them was convicted twice of sexual assault named brother Paul. In no way im i exaggerating when i say i was strapped easily Fifty times for the slightest infractions, they would get off on it. There was also a brother who would try to proposition you by sidling up next to you an sing under his breath the Pet Shop Boys i got the brains you got the looks lets make lots of money ?. This took place for me in the 1980s. One thing all ways comes to my mind and that is the disappearance of a young man called Mark Garvey who apparently would frequent the brothers house that was attached to the school i dont know if that was looked into it should be.

CHARTWELL MANOR GRAPHIC NOVEL – REVIEW

Chartwell Manor by Glenn Head a Comic Memoir Published by Fantagraphics $29.99 Out in the UK on 3rd June 2021! Available for pre-order now.

Robert Crumb describes it as a masterpiece and I wholeheartedly agree. It’s an extremely important graphic novel about a truly foul American boarding school run by a Catholic pervert, Lynch, and the impact it had on generations of children who literally passed through his evil hands.

It’s appealing to a general public because it is a tale of fighting adversity and it does have a genuine upbeat ending. It’s especially relevant to survivors and professionals studying this field because it shows the effect on kids better than any print memoir or text book could ever do. The illustrations bring it to life in a way that I doubt words alone can achieve. Only a movie could top it and this graphic novel deserves to be made into one. It’s professionally plotted, written and story-boarded and feels like a three act drama.  So it’s low-hanging fruit just waiting to be picked by a director.

The first part of the book is relatively easy going, showing the hideous nature of the school without being too visually graphic.  But it’s the rest of the book, after Glenn leaves Chartwell and descends into an urban Hell, where we enter difficult and uncharted territory. And it’s here that the story really comes into its own.

At this stage, you might feel this is starting to sound depressing and back away? Please don’t. It’s actually very positive because it’s about the truth and the truth is always, ultimately, positive. Contrary to what the sneerers might say (‘Is this a “poor me” book?’ Answer – No way.). Or the stoics  (‘You’ve just got to put up with it.’ Answer – No you don’t. And being stoic doesn’t work.). Or the denialists (‘Are you sure you’re not exaggerating?’ Answer – The truth is usually far worse than our edited memories.) Yeah, the truth really does set you free.

So, after school, we see Glenn encountering denialists in the form of his parents, trying to be stoic and inevitably failing as stoics always do and paying the price. (Alcohol, relationship issues, emotionally shut down, you name it.), and hesitating to tell the story of Chartwell for fear of it being a ‘poor me’ tale. Although it’s grim, I didn’t find it remotely harrowing. We’re all adults, after all.  

It’s a classic hero’s journey with a lot of false starts, falls from grace, and frustrations along the way. Hero’s journey because this is real life, not Clark Kent bullshit, and every pupil who survived the monstrous Lynch is a hero. Eventually Glenn achieves closure which for survivors is always retaliation (preferably legal). In my experience, there is no other way that works. Certainly not forgiveness, forgetting or prozac.  His retaliation is the publication of his book.

I run an Old Boys website about my old Catholic school, St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, which was not unlike Chartwell (named after Churchill’s retreat) so I had a special interest in reading it. Naming and shaming abusive teachers and schools on a website (and in reviews) is another successful form of retaliation.  

Here’s hoping Chartwell Manor is the start of a genre of comics and graphic novels exposing these horrible and serious crimes against children, rather than a one-off volume. Graphic art is a particularly good way to dramatise the characters and the often complex issues involved. 

Glenn has shown extraordinary courage in sharing his poignant and emotional story of endurance and strength with us. I hope many more survivors’ stories will follow him.

Chartwell Manor is available in the UK on Amazon from 3 June and you can preorder it now.

Part 3 of my podcast about the De La Salle Brothers