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	Limerick's Hell: Brothers Patrolled the Aisles with Leather Straps By Petula Martyn Limerick Leader May 30, 2009 http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Limericks-hell-Brothers-patrolled-the.5312476.jp "In almost 40 years as a professional entertainer it was the toughest audience I ever played to," the legendary Limerick comic told the Limerick Leader this week. The pair, who topped the bill twice in Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall during a career that spanned four decades, were approached by Conn Shanahan to stage a concert for the young people living at the reformatory in the 1950s. Laughter is described as the best medicine but for the children at St Joseph's Industrial School that night, laughter would have led to a beating from a Christian Brother. "It was the toughest concert we ever played," Tom said, "because after about three or four hundred inmates or pupils, call them what you will, filed in and sat down, several Christian Brothers patrolled the aisles brandishing leather straps dare anyone laugh. "This disturbed me greatly because we came with the purpose of bringing happiness and joy, and instead the audience were intimidated." Tom recalled the austerity of the recreation hall where the concert was staged, and the muted response from the audience to routines that normally had audiences laughing loudly. The children were dressed in cast off clothes that would have been rejected at the market, according to Tom. "It was the saddest moment of my theatrical life," he said. "Every artist that came off the stage said the very same thing, that they never saw so many faces of fear among the young people which was uncommon with our reputation for making laughter. "I will always remember while we were on stage in a comedy sketch, a brother walked across the front of the stage with a strap on his hand, hitting his own hand. We regarded it as a threat that if anyone laughed they'd pay the price." Tom did not get an opportunity to talk to the boys and the Christian Brothers kept their distance when the curtain fell.
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