Boyzone star Keith Duffy opens up about suffering horrific 'mental bullying' at school

The 47-year-old recalled spending three tough years at a Christian Brothers’ school in Dublin where he was bullied so badly for being from a “poorer” neighbourhood that he eventually had to leave the college.

“It would be fair to say I was bullied at school from the ages of 13 to 15 to 16,” he told The Irish Sun.

“I don’t mean physically, because I was involved with contact sports and I was fine with that.

"But it was mental torture, it was mental bullying, it was always being casted away from the main group of people.”

Continuing, Keith said that this experience had a lasting impact on him: “That’s kind of a mental torture, a mental bullying that stayed with me for years, it made me doubt myself for a long, long time.”

“For years and years after it had an adverse effect on me, it made me insecure.”

The father-of-two said that he confided in his late dad Sean at the time: “I said to my Dad, ‘I’m not liked there, I’m bullied.’

“There were lies spread against me in that school that upset me.

"Just childish stuff to be honest, but it has an effect on you when you’re a kid and you’re trying to find out who you are when you’re going through adolescence and you’re growing up.”

After three long years, the musician transferred to a different school, where he had the time of his life.

“I met a whole new bunch of guys and they were all from different areas and I had the best two years of my life at that school.

“But those three years in a Christian Brothers’ school in Dublin was possibly the worst three years of my schooling life,” he added.