Fear of the Collar: The True Story of the Boy They Couldn't Break

Sent to an industrial school in Dublin at the age of seven, Patrick Touher was forced into a tough regime of education and training, prayer and punishment, strict discipline, and fearful nights. No allowances were made for emotion, sentiment, or boyhood worries, and anyone who disturbed the routine was severely punished. Artane Industrial School demanded absolute obedience and absolute submission; Patrick's eight-year stint there was an education in cruelty and fear. Run by the Christian Brothers, the school has become synonymous with the widespread abuse of children in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s which is currently the subject of an official inquiry. This is the story of a childhood lived in the most horrific of circumstances, a moving and powerful account that bears testament to the courage and determination of the children that society forgot.