Despite the fact that we lived under a regime of fear I managed
to do exactly what I wanted, when I wanted.
I think you will find that most Master Candle Makers will adopt this
attitude towards life, whatever the consequences and at no matter which point
of their apprenticeship they might be at. The staff at Violent Hell didn’t care about me
and I certainly didn’t care about them.
The only good thing about old schools is that they can be full of wonderful
little nooks and crannies, and I did learn the valuable lesson that the best
place to hide was in plain sight.
Most boys’ would go to the toilets if they wanted to miss a
class. It was a nerve racking experience
sitting in a cubicle hoping that no one would come in. Of course it was a simple attempt to miss a class, with a wonderful
get out of jail free clause, which was that you were not bunking off you were
only going to the toilet. It wouldn’t
have been appropriate for the future King of Ireland to hide away in toilets so
I had my very own ruse.
Not many people knew about it but Violent Hell had a photography
club. I was introduced to his by the
pervert priest. He actually became aware
one day that I was a figure of fun at the school because I was the only boy at
the school in short trousers. He turned
up at the school. I shall never forget
as it was a Saturday and we had just finished Saturday morning study
period. As the bell, indicating the end
of the study period, rang there was a mass exodus of the junior study
hall. I was leaving my desk when he came
in. He came up to me and gave me a plain,
brown paper, wrapped, parcel.
It wasn’t my birthday and nothing special had happened for
which I should be rewarded. I was so
excited to open the parcel and find that it was a pair of blue denim jeans with
a brown leather belt. I don’t think I
took them off for the remainder of the term.
He spent an hour or two with me during which he showed me the photo
club. It was a very small single room,
more like a cupboard, hidden away in the science block. Of course as it was a single room you didn’t
want someone to open the door and let in light if you were developing a film or
printing a picture so you could lock the door.
Now I had my very own safe room. I
could go there lock the door and know that no one could get near me.
So one day I had decided to miss a double period of something
extremely boring. I was making my way to
the photography club being very careful that no one followed me, or was ahead
of me, and would see where I was going.
Even at this very early stage of my career as a Master Candle Maker I
was learning the basic skills of espionage that would stand me in such good
stead in later life. I rounded the corner,
pleased that I only had a matter of ten or twelve feet to go till I could enter
my sanctuary, when I was halted in my tracks.
The red light was on. I’m not
suggesting that there was a brothel in Violent Hell, no; the red light
indicated that the room was in use. I didn’t
use the red light for it brought attention to the fact that someone was in there
and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
I couldn’t hang around so as I was determined not to attend a
boring double period, I went to the closest toilet block. I wasn’t alone. There were three other boys in the toilet. Two from Lurgan, and one from Warrenpoint. They were not from my class so we knew that
there wouldn’t be a swath of empty desks in a classroom anywhere that would
bring our absence to the attention of whoever was in charge. We laughed and joked and smoked a few
cigarettes. Then one boy used the
urinal. There was a lot of building work
going on at the school so it wasn’t uncommon for all sorts of bits and pieces
to be found lying about. This boy found
a hack saw blade lying in the urinal. He
retrieved it, washed it, and then had a good idea.
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