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y separately published work icon The Empty Honour Board single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 The Empty Honour Board
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In 1966, at the age of 10, Martin Flanagan was sent to a Catholic boarding school in north-west Tasmania. Of the 12 priests on the staff, three have since gone to prison for sexual crimes committed against boys in their care. In 2018 and 2019, a series of disclosures about the school appeared on the ABC Tasmania website. Then came the Pell case. What followed was a frenzy of opinions, none of which represented Flanagan's view. The Empty Honour Board is part memoir, a reflection on truth and memory, and what is lost in rushing to judgement. Flanagan's school abounds in memorable characters. There's a kid who escapes and gets as far as Surfers Paradise, and two boys who hold a competition during evening chapel to see who can confess more times. A wild boy receives a 'Bradmanesque' 234 strokes of the cane in one year. It is a lonely and, at times, scary existence - as while the boys are victims of violence, they are also perpetrators. Drawn to neither the school nor its religion, Flanagan discovers himself through sport, later becoming known as one of Australia's most creative sportswriters. But his boarding days linger. In his first three years at the school, he'd faced a series of adult moral challenges. Not being an adult, he had failed - in his own estimation. This becomes of great consequence in his 20s when his wife is about to have their first child. A major reckoning with his past, however, leaves him with his ambition as a writer. A prison diary, a story of brotherly love, a journey of redemption, Flanagan's book goes inside an experience many have had, but few have talked about.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Form: audiobook

Works about this Work

Book Review : The Empty Honour Board, Martin Flanagan Richie Black , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , August 2023;

— Review of The Empty Honour Board Martin Flanagan , 2023 single work autobiography

'A memoir about boarding school days and the abuse that occurred there, forever shadowing Flanagan's life.'

Martin Flanagan The Empty Honour Board : A School Memoir Luke Horton , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 August 2023;

— Review of The Empty Honour Board Martin Flanagan , 2023 single work autobiography

'Journalist and author Martin Flanagan attended a Catholic boarding school in Tasmania from 1966 to 1971. It was after a third priest from his time at the school was convicted of sexual crimes that he began this memoir. It was 2019, George Pell’s guilty verdict was being challenged in the High Court, and the debate around paedophile priests was raging. Everyone in the media seemed certain about what happened in schools like his and yet, for Flanagan and his brothers, none of it was clear at all. Not that he doubted the victims – in a 2007 trial, he had given evidence against one of the priests – but as a journalist he knew how unreliable memory could be. Perhaps now was the time to see what he did remember.' (Introduction)

Martin Flanagan The Empty Honour Board : A School Memoir Luke Horton , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 August 2023;

— Review of The Empty Honour Board Martin Flanagan , 2023 single work autobiography

'Journalist and author Martin Flanagan attended a Catholic boarding school in Tasmania from 1966 to 1971. It was after a third priest from his time at the school was convicted of sexual crimes that he began this memoir. It was 2019, George Pell’s guilty verdict was being challenged in the High Court, and the debate around paedophile priests was raging. Everyone in the media seemed certain about what happened in schools like his and yet, for Flanagan and his brothers, none of it was clear at all. Not that he doubted the victims – in a 2007 trial, he had given evidence against one of the priests – but as a journalist he knew how unreliable memory could be. Perhaps now was the time to see what he did remember.' (Introduction)

Book Review : The Empty Honour Board, Martin Flanagan Richie Black , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , August 2023;

— Review of The Empty Honour Board Martin Flanagan , 2023 single work autobiography

'A memoir about boarding school days and the abuse that occurred there, forever shadowing Flanagan's life.'

Last amended 25 Jul 2024 12:09:03
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