Sir, - I was a boarder in St Eunan's College, Letterkenny, in the 1960s and can attest to the brutality of the regime (Terence Ferry, November 9th).
Apart from coping with a culturally bereft and impoverished curriculum, designed to obliterate any spark of artistic inclination or originality of thought while living in a stimulus-deprived environment, one spent every day and part of the night in fear of the leather strap administered severely to either hands or buttocks.
Talking after lights out merited six on the backside, your flesh protected only by the thin fabric of pyjamas. This was at the age of 13. A classmate of mine fainted at the blackboard in terror of the inevitable consequence of his inability to complete a theorem. A priest referred fondly to his leather as his "dispenser of wisdom", etc., etc.
However, balance is needed. There were decent men, both clerical and lay, on the staff who did not brutalise us, who tried to give us some insights and aspiration beyond the narrowness of the curriculum. The annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta stands out. I remember these men with fondness. At 48, I still have nightmares about the others. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Quigley, Swords, Co Dublin.