Brawling posh boys need to learn a lesson –

ON ONE level it looks like ‘handbags at dawn’ stuff, as students –past or present – from private schools St Michael’s College and Terenure College in Dublin brawled on the street in Donnybrook after a Senior Cup rugby match on Monday.

But on another level the melee, which gardaí were called to break up, illustrated how the entitled sons of Dublin’s elite disgrace themselves with loutish behaviour, bad language and a disregard either for the general public or the good name of their school.

Dressed in their football colours, these young men from two bastions of privilege can be seen attacking each other in a very public and arrogant display of violence. OK, nobody got hurt, but what is disturbing is that these people just need any old excuse to behave like thugs.

This sort of behaviour is not tolerated from so-called soccer hooligans, yet because these spoilt brats come from “rugby schools” Michael’s and ’Nure, they seem to feel that the normal rules of good behaviour and civic decency need not apply to them.

Apart from anything else, the brawl overshadowed the coverage of St Michael’s comprehensive 25-13 victory, so it is not as if the result was even in dispute.

Winston Churchill once said that “rugby is a hooligans’ game played by gentlemen” but at least the 30 players on the field either play by the rules or suffer the consequences from the referee. The same cannot be said for their supporters, some of whom appear to have adopted the mentality that such occasions are a convenient opportunity to attack others.

What, one wonders, are they being taught at home and in school if they cannot go along to a match and behave themselves, if not like gentlemen at least like people with normal standards.

So these are supposed to be responsible young adults from prominent Catholic schools? According to the school league tables published on Sunday, both of them are among the top performing fee-paying schools in the country, with 99pc of their students going on to third-level colleges. You wouldn’t think it to look at their behaviour after the game.

We are lucky in this country in that, with few exceptions, Gaelic football has fostered an ethos where supporters of rival counties, clubs and schools know how to behave themselves, no matter what ‘class’ or socio-economic group they belong to.

They can attend matches together, they can share a healthy rivalry, they can trade verbal banter, but at the end of the day they walk away, possibly disgruntled, but often together.

This loutish outburst between privately schooled young men took place in broad daylight less than 100 yards from one of the main Garda stations in Dublin. Those involved come from schools situated in Ailesbury Road in Dublin 4 and Terenure in Dublin 6, two of the most desirable addresses on the southside of Dublin. Most of the students who attend the schools come from nearby catchment areas, the children of comfortable upper-class professional and business elites. But for people from such backgrounds, they showed scant regard for common decency.

We don’t have to look very far back to recall how such confrontations between the privileged students of south Dublin can get out of hand and result in the tragic outcome probably best

illustrated by the Brian Murphy case. This showed how quickly arrogant young men schooled in Dublin’s best post-codes can sink to frightening violence that cast a shadow over them, their schools and families for many years.

On August 31, 2000, a “fracas” outside Anabel’s nightclub in Dublin 4 led to the former Gonzaga student Brian Murphy being surrounded by 10 young men, recent past-pupils from other private schools, who punched and kicked him, leading to his death.

Four former students of Blackrock College were charged with manslaughter and violent disorder after the event. Andrew Frame was acquitted on both charges, Desmond Ryan was found guilty of violent disorder but had the conviction overturned. Sean Mackey and Dermot Laide were jailed for two years for violent disorder. Mr Laide was also convicted of manslaughter but that conviction was overturned. A retrial was ordered but the State entered a nolle prosequi (no prosecution). Apart from the trauma to Brian Murphy’s family, the intense focus on the case ruined their early manhood and must have caused enormous hurt to all the families concerned.

The brats who brawled in Donnybrook on Monday should be hauled out of their ivory towers and taught that one punch can change the course of their lives and the life of the person they hit.

We all want healthy competition on the sports field. Loyalty to one’s school is, presumably, part of the ethos of private education. But it’s not an excuse for indulged young men to behave like louts.

Both these schools need to have a stern talk with the perpetrators to ensure that despite their privileged status there is a line that cannot be crossed without serious sanction in the future.