Coughing ban: Lecturer tells class ‘don’t spread your filthy little germs’

Frustrated students were made to stifle coughs after English Literature professor placed a coughing ban.

Senior lecturer Paddy Lyons upset his second years yesterday telling them not to “spread your filthy little germs”.

He raged at the beginning of the lecture: “If you’ve got a little cough thing, my advice is try and breathe from your diaphragm because then you won’t disturb everyone else, and more importantly, you won’t scatter your filthy little germs over everyone else, in particular me.”

And every time a student succumbed to their freshers’ flu he persistently reminded them “breathing from the diaphragm is the way to go to fight a cough”.

The Alex Salmond lookalike pissed off 55 per cent of his class.

At one point he even told the class where to get free tissues.

His shocking behaviour left students reeling.

One girl said: “If I ever felt the need to approach him, it would only be to advise him to invest in surgical masks.”

But Mr Lyons is known for his bizarre outbursts.

Another student who was in first year lectures with the phobic professor last year said: “When we had him in first year, his was the first lecture I had where I was treated like a schoolchild.

“Up until him, I felt the lecturers generally treated the group with a kind of mutual respect – they always seemed approachable and interested in us.

“But when Paddy started shouting at people for being ill, I felt like I was back in school again and being told off for misbehaving.

“It created a really tense atmosphere within the lecture theatre and a lot of people left that day feeling angry at Paddy.”

And his “nasty” attitude has alienated his class yet again: “This year, when he said to a student not to spread her ‘filthy little germs’ it brought back the same atmosphere from first year.

“You get the feeling that he doesn’t respect us as students and so it becomes difficult to appreciate and respect him as a lecturer.

“The way he worded it as well was so nasty and unnecessary – it’s not anyone’s fault they’re unwell.”

The Lyon’s den

But one male student has gotten used to Mr Lyons’ style of teaching.

He said: “I think we were all expecting the coughing rant, and I mean you can laugh about it because we all have Freshers flu – like, give us a break.

“Be happy we showed up even though we are all ill.”

“I do find him more approachable this year.

“The way he said it was a lot more jokey this year compared to last year, and also we were expecting it.

“We were scared but looking forward to the crap that he was going to come out with, but in all honesty it was quite anticlimactic.

“Maybe someone actually told him off about it.”