Having enjoyed Roddy Doyle's novels about growing up in impoverished Ireland, I was drawn to see a film of the same genre,
Sing Street, set around the still-existing Christian Brothers' college in Synge Street, Dublin.
Fifteen year old Conor is a new boy at the school, and quickly subjected to bullying by tough fellow students and the headmaster, Brother Baxter. Mentored by his elder brother in their dysfunctional family, Conor refuses to be cowered, and goes on to form a riff band with an unlikely group of classmates. The story is light-hearted and the music enjoyable. Eventually the group gets to do a gig at the school's prom -- and their farewell song is dedicated "to the Christian Brothers and all the other bullies you have known", and has the lyrics "the bigger they are, the harder they fall".
No far cry from that teenage penitentiary have been the distressing revelations of present-day abusive bullying in NT and other juvenile detention centres, especially of indigenous youth. And schools across the nation have to deal with peer bullying and rampant online torment that results too often in youth suicide. But it's not just the kids. Reports of workplace bullying, even by politicians, are regularly seen in our news media.
The causes of this epidemic are complex and of no easy solution. But certainly we need a greater awareness of it, and a sensitivity to those who we may suspect are victims and in need of support. And I guess no harm in looking at out own behaviour towards others to be sure we don't ever succumb to lording it over them in any way.
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