Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

2. 

   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

3. 

   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

ONE of more than 50 former pupils of St Mary’s College and the Mount Prep School in Crosby in Merseyside who have alleged that the they suffered serious physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their teachers claimed that he was struck with on the head an iron pole.

The man who told the BBC of being viciously attacked by a teacher named Brother Ryan with the pole is Eamonn McNamara, who attended the school with his brother Anthony.

He had a metal bar and he just hit me on the back of her head with it. It was terrible.

He said when he went home that evening his mother asked him if he had been fighting.

I said, ‘No, why?’, and she said, ‘Well, there’s blood on your shirt’.

Four former students of the establishment are taking civil action against the Congregation of Christian Brothers, which ran the school.

Of the 50 former pupils who have come forward with allegations of violence and abuse, 40 are intending to join the legal action against the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a religious order founded in Ireland in 1802 with a mission to educate Catholic boys.

The school — which is now under different management — has said it would co-operate with any police investigation.

Brothers Anthony and Eamonn McNamara have said they were traumatised by their experiences at St Mary’s College in the 1950s and 1960s.

Anthony suffered a mental breakdown after leaving the school.

I endured the most traumatic experiences that I’ve had in my life as a result of two of the Christian Brothers in particular.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers has said it “sincerely regrets” any alleged abuse. And the school —is now under different management — has said it would co-operate with any police investigation.

The brothers spoke out after North West Tonight revealed the Congregation of Christian Brothers is facing legal action.

Andrew Lord, a senior associate solicitor for Leigh Day, said:

We’ve now taken accounts from over 40 former pupils and have messages from more.

A St Mary’s College spokesperson said: “Any former pupils whose experience of life at St. Mary’s between the 1950s and the early 1990s was not a positive one have our sympathy and support.

He said the accounts of physical abuse date from the 1960s to the 1990s and painted “quite a harrowing picture”, with “some instances of alleged sexual abuse”.

Corporal punishment was legal in private schools until 1998, but the legal action is on the basis the violence was excessive and unjustified.

However, because the alleged events date from well before 2006, when the management of St. Mary’s was transferred from the Christian Brothers to a new, separate charitable trust, it is very difficult for those of us who run the college today to make any informed comment, although we would of course give officers any assistance they might need if a police investigation ensues.

Hat tip: Stuart Hartill

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