Is bullying more common here than other cultures?

AS THE nation’s schools reopen this week, can I ask a question: is Ireland more prone to bullying than other cultures? This struck me this week listening to the many stories from Irish schools and workplaces about the horror of bullying. Many young people told me how they were simply afraid to report bullying because it would lead to more attacks. Parents told me how they confronted – often unsuccessfully – the perpetrators and their parents.

Others told me that if their child suffered from an illness such as epilepsy, they were often shamefully ridiculed over it.

There are so many lessons to be learned when it comes to dealing with bullying, because the long-term effects are horrific. One woman who did succeed in ending the reign of terror, which was being visited on her son by his so-called classmates, took the situation in hand by simply collecting the bricks which had been pelted at her child and unceremoniously dumping them onto the desk of the shocked school principal. The school boss took action, promptly.

But other victims, still reeling in later life from the effects of long-term bullying, revealed that schools were often blasé about the issue – and teachers, unwittingly or not, could add to the scorn by humiliating a pupil in front of a class.

By the way, first things first: no teacher should be allowed to humiliate a child in front of the class.

One victim I spoke to was adamant, having travelled the world, that bullying is worse in Ireland than in other cultures.

Our tribal sporting competitiveness, invariably based around geographical areas, is more intense here than in other nations. Indeed, visitors to Ireland are gobsmacked at the strength and depth of the GAA – which, without doubt, is primarily a positive influence, but there can be downsides to such intensity. Our tribal political system – where visceral dislike is based on what side your ancestors took in the Civil War, the centenary of which we will be marking in a couple of years – generates intense local competition and often hatred.

There may be little difference in what you believe, but whether your great-great grandfather stood with Collins or Dev determines the local shop, pub or butcher you frequent.

The Department of Education has drawn up new guidelines on dealing with bullying, but teachers told me that while they can spot bullying pretty quickly, dealing with it is another matter.

School boards are reluctant to expel errant pupils because of the implications, either regulatory or legal – so teachers and victims end up feeling totally frustrated and undermined by the process.

And we have not even touched on the minefield of cyberbullying.

Thankfully, the world’s leading expert on cyberbullying and understanding internet crime is Irish.

This week, Dr Mary Aiken published her new book on the subject, in which she sets about explaining how human behaviour changes online.

Having been involved in two major cyberbullying prevention campaigns for the EU, she offers this disturbing proposition about online bullying: ‘The more friends you have, the less likely somebody will intervene.’

It’s just one of the many fascinating insights in this important new book, reminding us that bullying, no matter where it happens, needs to be tackled decisively and head-on.

The Cyber Effect (John Murray Press) by Dr Mary Aiken is out now, priced €19.99.

THE announcement that this Wednesday’s match against Oman will be Robbie Keane’s last time to wear the green jersey has led to universal praise for the striker, right, in the media – all justified.

But contrast that with how some columnists reacted to the news that Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys has been voted by readers of the BBC’s Radio Times as the sitcom of the century.

In one newspaper, they described the voters as ‘idiots – sorry, punters’, and said the show was ‘derivative rubbish’. No wonder Brendan lives in Florida!

LEST we be overwhelmed by angst over allegations about the Irish and the Olympics, spare a thought for the chutzpah of Tory MP Heather Wheeler, who said it was the ‘British Empire’ that was the big winner in Rio!

To support her pro-Brexit stance, she calculated that the Commonwealth countries won 396 medals, the EU (without Britain) could only muster 258, while the rest of the world hit just 320.