IRISH CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX ABUSE REPORT STIRS UP MEMORIES OF ABUSE AT SAINT LOUIS COLLEGE: Irish Christian Brother Byrne was sadistic

by Gregory Hartnell, former student, Saint Louis College, Victoria

News that a new long report has just been released by the Irish Government into the history of the Irish Roman Catholic Church’s part in the physical and sex abuse of minors in the last century is troubling to me, as I was a Saint Louis College student taught by the same order of Irish Christian Brothers which is named in the report as one of the most problematic orders responsible.

This same order was also the one responsible for allowing rampant physical and sex abuse of minors at the infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage in Saint John’s, Newfoundland, and in a number of schools in Australia.

I attended the private Roman Catholic Church-run Saint Louis College at Pandora Avenue and Vancouver Street (now Saint Andrew’s Elementary and Preschool) in the early sixties, sent there by my well-intentioned and oblivious parents, from grades three to seven, the second half of grade nine and all of grade ten.  I attended the public Central Junior High School in grade eight, and the first half of grade nine.

Generally speaking, I have good memories of my time at Saint Louis College.  But there are some memories that are not very good at all, and these pertain to physical abuse (not sexual) that I and many other boys suffered under the hands of one man on the staff.

I distinctly remember Brother Byrne, a short, dark-haired member of the Irish Christian Brothers, who taught us in grade four.  I have never written about this before, but feel I must release these memories in case others suffered worse abuse than I, and in a sincere effort to start a dialogue on this abuse which I don’t believe has ever been discussed publicly in the Roman Catholic Church community here in Victoria, although we now know that the same order of brothers was involved in documented physical and sex abuse of minors in Mount Cashel, in Ireland and in Australia.

Brother Byrne was a great story teller, but he also liked to punish boys who had not lived up to his expectations.  One trick was to have the boy stand in the corner, with his arms outstretched directly in front of him at shoulder level, palms up.  A pile of heavy books was placed on the boy’s hands, and as the weight of the books became unbearable, the boy would typically start to unintentionally lower the load.  At that point, Brother Byrne would come along with a long wooden pointer, and wrap the knuckles of the boy, in order to make him raise his arms again to the required level.  Sometimes these punishments went on for more than half an hour.

Another of Brother Byrne’s sadistic tricks was to take the offending boy into the clothes closet at the end of the classroom, shut the door so we couldn’t witness what was about to happen, and then the boy was strapped, either on the hands, or on the back of the calves.  We could hear the noise of the strapping and the boys’ cries of anguish as each lash was brought down.   These lashes would produce welts which were clearly visible to all. It was all quite horrible, uncivilized and un-Christian, all the more so for our not being able to witness it completely, oddly enough, and perhaps that was Brother Byrne’s sadistic intention.

The straps were memorable for their provenance.  Brother Byrne would get his class pets to go to the old junk yard on View Street (near the site of the old Club Tango), to acquire a few old black rubber fan belts from the rusting hulks of old cars found there.  These would be wrapped in white adhesive tape, which of course would become bloodied over the course of time.  After the belt had become too stained with dried blood, it would be replaced by another with new white tape wrapped around it.  Brother Byrne also had the nasty habit of naming these straps with such female names as ‘Betsy’ and “Susie,’ etc.

I am not alleging here any sexual abuse on the part of Brother Byrne or any other Christian Brother of Ireland employed at Saint Louis College. I understand full well the difference between non-sexual physical sadism and the more serious sadistic sexual abuse of minors of the type documented in the Mount Cashel, Irish and Australian cases.

I am writing this short report for the sole purpose of helping others like myself who have never quite accepted that this actually happened to us in a school that purported to convey Christian values to us of love, hope and faith.

It is very hard to accept, also, that the Christian Brothers of Ireland did not employ others with similar proclivities on the staff at Saint Louis College in Victoria who did not abuse boys in a manner similar to what happened in Mount Cashel, in Ireland and in Australia.  I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong by harbouring these long-standing doubts about those into whose care we were placed by our parents.

I hope that in writing this short report that I may encourage others who may have suffered some physical or (God forfend) sexual abuse at Saint Louis College by other members of the Irish Christian Brothers to be completely forthcoming.

I  reiterate that I have no memories of sexual abuse at Saint Louis College by Brother Byrne or any of the other Christian Brothers of Ireland who taught there, but certainly I was strapped on my hands, and had to hold up the heavy pile of books on a number of occasions.   Although I was aware that Brother Byrne strapped boys on their calves, I was never strapped there.  That was the worst punishment in Brother Byrne’s bag of sadistic tricks. 

It seems to me it is long past time for members of the local Roman Catholic Church here to come to terms with this history, in order to determine, once and for all, whether any more serious physical or sexual abuse than I documented here can be discovered, and to deal with it properly.  The key to it all is the part played by the Irish Christian Brothers.  If large-scale abuse by this order happened in Newfoundland, Ireland and Australia, it seems almost miraculous that more serious abuse by this order has not been documented here in Victoria.

I have heard rumours over the years, but none of these have been brought to the light of day, as far as I know.  Perhaps now is the time for the truth-telling to start.

For a link to the Ryan Report, please refer to the comments section below.

CCC