AN UP-and coming rugby star, who is currently part of an American underage squad touring Argentina, has spoken exclusively to The Echo about the effect bullying had on him while attending primary school in the New Ross area.
Justin Allen, who now lives in Co. Donegal, was targeted by cowardly bullies over a pro-longed period of time while he was living in Fethard-on-Sea.
Justin, who recently turned 18, was targeted by a group of older children between his time in Junior infants and First Class in Poulfur National School. Recalling his time in the school, around 14 years ago, he said it involved “an older group” and that the incidents occurred both inside and outside the school.
“The group involved was two or three years older than me,” he said.
“There were between five and seven in the group and they were all local.”
Now standing at 6’8” in height Justin was big for his age while in primary school and he believes that may have been one reason for him being targeted.
“I was bigger than everyone else in the school and showed promise in sports and education,” he said.
While he did have friends in school he said the incidents of bullying always involved the same group of older boys.
“At school I always did well academically and outside of school I did well in terms of sport.”
His sporting prowess saw him join the local G.A.A. club when he was seven years-of-age. Two of the younger members of the group targeting him were also involved with the club but he confirmed to The Echo that nothing happened when he was with the club.
““None of the older ones were in the G.A.A. but two of the younger ones were involved in Gaelic,” he said.
“One of them wasn’t that bad but when the others were around he changed; but I think he was afraid of his brother.”
Significantly, Justin also revealed there was never a problem when adults were around.
He said it was around that time that he began to realise that what was happening to him wasn’t right.
“I realised that others weren’t being treated the same way.”
“I told my mum it was going on for two years and she went to the mother of the ring leader and confronted her but she just said ‘boys will be boys’,” he said.
“We went to the Principal [at the time] but nothing was done,” he added.
“Nothing changed so mam took me out of school and we moved to Slade when I was in 2nd class.”
Justin’s sister was also taken out of the school ‘to make sure she was ok’ and their mother, well known artist, Kathleen Allen, put them into Ballyhack National School.
They spent two years in Ballyhack but the trip each day was difficult so Justin’s mother decided to home-school him and his sister.
“It started out alright but relatives of people from Duncannon knew the people involved in Fethard,” recalled Justin.
“I befriended someone and this group got on to him without my knowledge – he went to the same school as them.”
Things took a very sinister turn shortly after this period when his ‘friend’ invited him to Duncannon but when the two of them went for a walk along the beach they met up with a larger group of older children who, after about 10 minutes, attacked him in a completely unprovoked attack.
The group that attacked Justin on the beach in Duncannon was composed of different people to those involved in the Fethard-on-Sea incidents, however, he believes some of the respective group members were friendly with each other.
Ironically, the ‘friend’ who led Justin to the group that attacked him spoke to his sister recently in Portadown while he was up there for a rugby game.
“He said [to her] that he was sorry and that he was terrified if he didn’t go through with it.”
When asked what the nature of the attack was that occurred on Duncannon beach Justin said it involved him being punched and kicked. He was also hit on the head with a metal bucket.
When asked if there was any sign of the impending attack he said there was “none whatsoever”.
“It was just completely out of the blue.”
Following the cowardly attack Justin suffered headaches for a period of time and he also revealed that his attackers videoed what happened.
Justin’s mother found out about the video because her friend’s son found it and showed it to his own mum who in turn revealed it to Ms. Allen.
However, Justin initially denied it was him in the video because he “didn’t want anything to do with it”.
However, when the matter was brought to the attention of the school Principal he admitted what had occurred.
Justin also revealed that the Principal had “no idea” what was going on: “The problems in Duncannon were all outside the school.”
The Principal couldn’t do anything because it was outside of school,” he said.
“It was a year before I finally admitted it was me [and] the Gardai said they couldn’t do anything because it was over a certain time period.”
After he found out what was happening the school Principal did take measures to keep the bullies away from the school.
“After school some of the older boys would be at the back of the school gate and the Principal would get them away,” said Justin.
When asked how his ordeals had affected him Justin said he was afraid to leave the house on his own.
“I didn’t walk anywhere alone and didn’t go anywhere after dark,” he said.
“Intimidation went on at the gate until the Principal stopped it.”
Such was the overall affect on his personality that Justin found he could talk to people but couldn’t open up to them “right up until Transition Year in secondary school”.
“I could talk to people but I couldn’t really open up to them,” he said.
He also agreed that ‘subconsciously’ he was “probably afraid of it happening again”.
“I preferred to be alone – probably because I wasn’t going to allow anything to hurt me.”
Justin also said his confidence was drastically affected by what happened and that his overall behaviour became “weird”.
“I had mood swings where I would be happy and then depressed…and I was very angry,” he said.
“I still have things like putting up barriers; subconsciously I didn’t want to get hurt across the board.”
A chance comment over dinner one evening proved fortuitous for Justin when a friend suggested he should go along to a training session with his local rugby club.
“I went to a training session and enjoyed it,” he said.
The Principal of his secondary school also asked him to join the school squad which he duly did at U-16 level.
Within the last four to five years Justin’s rugby career has been on an ever upward spiral including seeing him line out for Ulster at U-15, U-16 and U-17 level.
He played for Letterkenny for two seasons and at one of the Ulster sessions he was approached about going to Portadown for a week.
He later joined that club and had the highest score in Ulster for the 2011 season.
In another major competition for underage rugby players in Ulster he was named ‘Man of the Match’ in three different games.
Such has been his meteoric rise through the game’s underage ranks that he attracted the interest of scouts in America [Justin has dual citizenship of both Ireland and the U.S.A.].
He was then selected to join the American Eagles for their underage tour of Argentina. He is currently in the U.S.A. and the tournament will continue until July 28.
Two of the games will see him compete against two Argentinean international squads.
“Rugby has done a lot for my confidence and I have got a lot of friends out of the sport,” said Justin, when asked how his involvement in the sport helped him cope with the trauma of what he endured while in national school.
“It helped me snap out of what happened,” he added.
With regard to advice to other young people going though a similar ordeal to his Justin said talking is the key to fighting back against bullies.
“I would say talk to someone; a sibling, partner or friend, and try to take up a team sport.”
“Even if you’re not sporty join a group that meets up once or twice a week [and] just have fun,” he added.
“If you can get out of the range of the people that are doing the damage and meet other people outside of that you will realise that it is in them; it’s their mindset.”
