Ireland's Entry in the Suffering Sweepstakes

From a review of Fintan O’Toole's history of Ireland since his birth in 1958:

O’Toole was lucky enough to attend a relatively normal school run by the Christian Brothers, if normality can be stretched to accommodate unrestrained physical violence meted out with leather straps or bamboo canes, and much enforced propaganda; the Brothers published such texts as Courtesy for Boys and Girls and a Catechism of the History of Ireland, which asserted that “in the martyrology of history, among crucified nations, Ireland occupies the foremost place. The duration of her torture, and the ferocity of her executioner, are as revolting as the power of the victim is astonishing.”