Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275576 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
This is a memoir of Peter Tyrrell's seven years in Letterfrack Industrial School in the 1920s and early 30s. It recounts his impoverished upbringing and the abuse that he and others suffered at the hands of the Christian Brothers. It gives an impression of the day-to-day life of the inmates in Letterfrack and the misery of their lives. In the final three chapters it also tells us what happened in his life after Letterfrack, his entry into the British Army, his time in a POW camp in World War Two Germany and his subsequent years spent travelling around England as a tailor to trade with his fellow Irish emigrants. The book is written in a fluid and often very childish style, but it is vivid and deeply moving. It engages the reader in its descriptions of the harsh regime at the school, the pen portraits of the children, staff and locals and the picture of life in Mayo and Galway in the 1920s. In addition to the story of Peter Tyrrell's life, the book is important for the story of the manuscript and its place in Irish history.

Peter Tyrrell contacted Senator Owen Sheehy Skeffington in 1959 as a result of the high-profile condemnation by Sheehy Skeffington of Ireland's educational system, and its pathological reliance on punishment. Tyrrell wrote to him about his experiences in Letterfrack and he was encouraged to put it down on paper. The correspondence had tailed off by 1968 when Skeffington received a letter from Scotland Yard asking him to identify a half-torn card addressed to him in Tyrrell's hand. The card had been found next to the charred remains of an unidentified corpse of a man who had apparently burned himself alive on Hampstead Heath the previous year. This scrap of paper was the only means of identifying Tyrrell's body. His manuscript was never published and it remained in Skeffington's private papers until Diarmuid Whelan discovered it in 2004 when archiving the Sheehy Skeffington collection for the National Library of Ireland.

Customer Reviews

Stunning
Reading this book has had a profound affect on me. I think this is due in part to the overwhelming sadness you feel as you read about Peter's life and how his experiences in Letterfrack directly affected him throughout his adult life.

The synopsis here on Amazon mentions the style that the book is written in, this adds to the experience and it feels that Peter is beside you recounting his story.

If only Peter (and the many, many more like him) were alive to have seen his story finally vindicated.

The wife of a victim
This book tells of the fear and degradation of the young boys at Letterfrack.They were a long way from home with nobody to turn to for help.The scars,both mental & physical, never really heal.It is tragic that Peter Tyrrell had to die before his voice could be heard.He speaks for the many victims who are still unable to tell of the horrors they endured.Heartrending read!

This Book has shocked me ,I am not easily shocked
What strikes me most is the fear in that young boys heart when he realises that there is no escape or way out of that Industrial school.
Also they were never beaten in the presence of two christian Brothers.