Veritas: Memories of the Real John McKie, aka Myops and “Hairy-Cheeks”

For those of us who attended Hutchesons’ Boys’ Grammar School in the 1960s and early 1970s, the prospect of having John McKie as a teacher, in the secondary level, was not a good one. I was lucky to have Joseph Kane, in the primary school, as the alternative was a brute called Finlay. Some boys managed to escape the chase of the bullies, most of whom were a bunch of feral odds-and-sods, who really shouldn’t have been there at all. Not too bright, their sole purpose seemed to be to make the lives of a few targeted children as unpleasant as possible.

 

In the background, were the thoughts of what it would be like to move up to secondary. As often is the way, talk about who were the good teachers and who were the ones to be avoided at all costs was common. John McKie was among those to be feared the most.