This publication is pioneering stuff of a new whistleblowing nature, as the author critically portrays the behind-the-scenes goings-on he perceived to be part of the Irish primary school system. It explores much that has been hidden under the carpet for far too long, as it dismantles any notion that people have held (or hold) of every school institution being a cosy place of harmonious learning.

As an obviously judicious insider in the primary school scene and system, there is a certain anger as the author spits out what many have been choking on for years and exposes a dirty underbelly, which no doubt some will find unpalatably unpleasant. It contains some very profound comments on topics such as fear, power, religion and the clergy, equality, fairness, the community, teachers and teaching and, of course, education itself.

This treatise may come to represent a watershed in Irish Primary School history and, is as loud as calls come for major changes in the governance of our primary schools. Nobody is above the law or sacrosanct as far as the author is concerned.

The contents should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in Ireland’s educational system and indeed, for the public in general. Of one aspect, there will surely be general agreement … that there is no place in any educational system for the two main characters in this book, the fictional duopoly which ‘run’ the fictional St. James’ Primary School – The Black Padre and the Brathadóir.