Former band member remembers those who 'revelled in violence'
MENTION the word Artane and the image of the
familiar boys' band belting out popular tunes around Croke Park on All-Ireland day springs to mind.
But for former Artane Boys' Band member Patrick Walsh, the once infamous school of the same name in north Dublin conjures up darker and more bitter memories.
Almost 45 years after he first crossed the school's threshold, the now 53-year-old recalls his time there as "a dark and grim experience in one of Ireland's nastiest hellholes".
Those unwelcome memories bubbled to the surface again yesterday in the wake of an extraordinary row between the Christian Brothers and the Archbishop of Dublin over the recent release of a report on conditions in the former industrial school that was compiled by its then chaplain 45 years ago.
Patrick was 10 when he was transferred to Artane from another school in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow in October 1963, where two of his older brothers were already in residence.
According to Mr Walsh, physical abuse was doled out on the young residents by people who "revelled" in violence.
His only refuge was the Artane Boys' Band.
Pat remembers the school's chaplain Fr Henry Moore, whose report on conditions in the school in 1962 was to spark the current row between Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and the Christian Brothers. He believes the chaplain's controversial report was "highly reflective" of the conditions that existed in the school at the time.
It was inconceivable that the Christian Brothers only became aware, as they claimed, two years ago, of the complaints raised in Fr Moore's survey and he took "with a pinch of salt" their contention that they had no sight or knowledge of the report's contents until only recently.
