By the time Lou was at primary school the new Christian Brothers’ Primary School on Courtenay Hill was opened.  All the boys had the misfortune to be placed in Brother Kelly’s class.  He was a brutal savage!  You know, John, said Lou to your editor, why I can spell “nephew” ?  No big thing but it is to me.  It’s over sixty years ago, but he beat me on the backs of the hands with a wooden rod until I learned the spelling of that one word.

 N-E-P-H-E-W. 

We wouldn’t go home and report it, for fear of getting beaten there a second time for giving trouble to the Religious Brothers! 

But my pal Bobby Loughran (RIP) was in our house when my father enquired why my hands were so badly swollen. My father was a placid man, like my brother Joe – certainly not fiery like me! That day he happened to have a potato-peeling knife in his hand when he was told this story.

 
‘”He did WHAT?” my father roared, stabbing the air like he would like to stab the savage!

 
“He did THAT to YOU??”  he reiterated, coming closer to me.

He stabbed again, and in his anger, upset and excitement, he actually stabbed me in the arm - accidentally, of course.

He stormed out the door and off to meet the ‘Christian’ Brother.

How I wish I had been there to view the confrontation.

 
Whatever way the meeting went, I got peace at last from the brutal teacher because I was transferred out of his class after that!

.......... more to follow .....