Donal remembers vividly one particularly beating by the late president of St Colman’s College, Newry, Fr Malachy Finnegan, mainly because the priest insisted his mother should witness it.

He was about 15 or 16 then and in 4th year at the time.

There was a rumpus in the class and Fr Finnegan was passing on the corridor outside. “He came in and grabbed me and two or three others and brought us into the corridor. He caught me by the throat and lifted me by the collar two or three feet off the ground and he said ‘go home and you won’t be allowed back until one of your parents comes in’.”