I experienced it in primary school in the 80s. The trauma lasts a life time. After getting a punch in the ear one time from a teacher that left my ear ringing for a couple of days I ran into the garda station just down the road in tears. When I told the guard what had happened he told me to get out or “he’d hit me another box”. Physical child abuse in day schools was just as rampant back then but until last night’s programme it was never discussed. Despite the fact that it ruined my early education and others in my class who got it must worse than me it is accepted that “corporal punishment” was good and many think it should be brought back. It was legalised child abuse with no restrictions or guidelines.

Every Friday in St. Patrick’s school in Galway city in the late sixties early seventies, we were lined up against the wall in the classroom and asked a question from the catechism. If you answered the question right, then you sat down in your seat. But if you got it wrong then you were whipped with a bamboo stick and you went back to the wall and went around and around until you answered a question! The brother actually enjoyed whipping us 8-9 year olds. There was a boy in the class who was physically impaired and the brother made fun of him in front of the class. I hope the brother is burning in hell.

I was hit with a cane time and again in 1982 for not understanding maths, the very same teacher that did this to me I would happen upon some 13 years later. I never forgot 1982, he’ll never forget 1995.

I experienced the remnants of it in the early 90s, but NOTHING like the level of physical abuse my father’s generation went through at the hands of so-called religious people. Was it God that told you to physically abuse children?!

Christian Brothers again. How is this cult still legal? Especially as they continue refuse to engage with the courts regarding compensation for their many sex abuse victims.

I don’t know why anyone is appalled or shocked at the revelations in the RTE documentary last night. Corporal punishment was legal and institutions were exemplary in beating children in every school in Ireland. I went to school in St Vincent’s , north strand in the sixties and we were beaten almost every day without exception for any and every reason, not understanding spellings, tables , particularly not getting Irish, maths or forgetting to do homework which was mainly an inability to do sums. But you could also be beaten for anything seen as an infringement of their rules, it was a cruel and harsh time. The lay teachers were equally willing to inflict punishment as well as the nuns. My teacher had a press in the wall in the classroom and when you were going to be slapped , she would say “Teigh go dti an cofra agus faigh an bata”, not only were you going to be beaten but you had to get the “bata” and present it to her to beat you with it. No wonder children grew up with anxiety, depression , lacking confidence and inability to stay in education, most children could not wait to get out of the system and escape the torment. I smile when I hear politicians and teachers say they are shocked at the revelations, the world and it’s mother knew what was going on in our schools, orphanages, mother and baby homes , mental hospitals etc. In any institution where people were held against their will or detained by the state under the control of the religious, nuns, priests and brothers, then these tyrants used their muscle and power and how they enjoyed it. Don’t even get me started on the mental abuse of pupils , that might be for another documentary. The pity is that none of these people will be accountable for their actions and destroying lives, and you could relay in every school the same methods, actions and abuse but because it was state and church sanctioned , there is no justice for yesterdays children.

It wasn’t just religious orders that were guilty…in the 80s I had a primary school principal who took particular delight in hitting us small kids with a thick leather strap on both sides on our hands.

The nuns were ever bit as bad we were hammered in school, the evil in their eyes and faces haunt me especially whenever I see a nun in dark clothing

I had to switch to another channel was too difficult to watch those poor children .and to see a grown man still so badly affected he was.so emotional he could hardly speak. The man who took his son out of the school did he ever get a reply after his complaint

If you couldn’t rattle off say 9 times tables you got “socked”.

Went through school in rural Ireland in the sixties. I suppose in hindsight compared to many other places we were “ lucky “ to “ only “ be beaten on the hand by a twelve inch timber ruler.
What I find strange is that so few of those badly abused by teachers of any hue never went back as adults and had their revenge on the perpetrators of this horrific cruelty.
Perhaps they were too badly traumatised to do so.
I know that even to this day if I met the teacher who beat us as children ( he’s probably dead now) I would have to be restrained from grabbing him by the neck.
On a more happy note it’s fantastic to see the changes that have happened over the intervening years and we can only smile to watch our grandchildren happily dancing into school without a worry in the world.

Give them compensation now!

In my lay primary school, the most vicious teacher was also the most pious and religious. To this day, I get anxious and flustered if asked to do mental arithmetic.
This idiot thought he could beat knowledge into kids. It did the opposite for me!

There is a book, Founded on Fear by Peter Tyndal. As a very young child Peter was removed from his family, basically because he was poor. On arrival at Letterfrack, on day 1, his new clothes were taken and he was physically assaukted. The abuse continued for years, by the Christian Brothers. He spent his childhood in a continuous state of terror, being beaten or watching others being beaten. Later in life he was taken as a POW by the Germans, he said it was better than Letterfrack in the pow camp.

There are a lot of comments about it being lay teachers too and that’s fair enough. But you still have to think about the environment and culture that made this seem acceptable. That points back to the deeply oppressive religion that had its tentacles around every aspect of society. It’s very easy to justify all sorts of horrible behaviour when it’s accepted that one magical book is the source of all wisdom and is unerringly true. It’s not hard to pick out lines in the bible or any ‘holy book’ that justify the worst kind of behaviour and attitudes. Freeing a large part of the country from colonial rule and then handing over that same level of power to the church, is one of the most tragic and infuriating aspects of Irish history.

These people deserved exactly zero control and power to be handed over to them and their ignorance. Nobodies and bullies with an old book as their excuse. They should have been told to indulge their fantasies in their own time, not handed the keys to the state.

I experienced a lot of this – it was cultural, “normal” in society from lay teacher to brother to priest. Parents weren’t told half of what happened because it was so normal, horrible way to teach. The best teachers i ever had never lifted a finger to us.

The nuns were as bad…
They took some sick pleasure out of b8′n kids.

Their must be more than the school principal involved in this what about minister for justice and minister for education of the .Time

All these stories are shocking and your heart would go out to all the victims however if you value your mental health then avoid watching RTE as they seem to have a fixation on making programs and documentaries like this about sexual or physical abuse or about families who have suffered some sort of serious tragedy or persons who are terminally ill
Watching RTE should always be preceded by a mental health warning and helpline numbers to cope with the trauma of watching RTE

There were no creches or playschools before we started school at age 4 in the 1950′s, we were all slapped on the hands from about age 5 with heavy, 18″ long wooden slats, manufactured for that purpose. I would say very few children escaped beatings of one type or another. I’m sure everyone remembers this.

It was widespread I went to the North Mon in Cork for the entire 70s primary we had sadists as teachers, both lay and religious, my best friend sat next to me , he had a stutter when asked a question especially by one sadist the stutter would get worse, as did the beating I tried to stop it one day and I got the same 2 cracked ribs. We had lads in class who were probably dyslexic or had other learning issues who had dusters and other objects thrown at them everyday and berated. I often wonder what became of them.

Got into post primary there same stuff , I wanted to stay due to the fact I could hurl a bit eventually moved, less physical stuff , but more emotional stuff especially a geography teacher who kept telling us we had no future this was early 80s.

Plenty of teachers were just as bad. nuns were equally as vile and abusive.
still have the scars to prove it.

I was in primary school in the 80′s. For me, it was female lay teachers. There was no escape. At 6yrs of age, you couldn’t even try to get out of those wooden bench/desks. It was everyday but one beating in particular will never leave me. It was in 1st class, and I was a tiny 6yr old.
It involved holding my ponytail and whacking my head/face off the desk. It was horrendous.
She was a red roaring alcoholic and I was as quite as a mouse, an easy target for her daily hangover.
Fast forward to 5th and 6th class, it was daily thumpings with an engagement ring into my shoulder blade.
It was constant but not as malicious.
All these years later (35yrs on) I have to get regular injections into that same shoulder blade. I’m convinced it’s because of that stupid ring.

Caine……WAVIN PIPE was the weapon of choice in St Jarlaths tuam by both collared and the Lay enforcers.

Ok, maybe harrowing but can not be allowed to take over from the alleged Sexual abuse evidenced in the scoping report. Worst of all being in our schools for the Intellectually Disabled where there Must be accountability

I suffered quite bad violence against against myself from a number of teachers although I did suffer as bad as other lads. My biggest issue was the violence at home at the time. It was like living in an alternative universe. Violence in school followed by violence at home. I was diagnosed a number of years ago with ptsd as a child and about 5 months ago with adult adhd. I’m guessing this might be scar tissue from those times.

As a five year old I was dragged from my desk by a nun who scraped my arm and it bled. My father who was eating his dinner when I came home and saw what happened dropped his knife and fork went straight to the convent to complain and was told by the mother superior that the nun was having her dinner and couldn’t be disturbed!! She ignored me for the rest of the year.

Having been caned many times in primary school I moved on to secondary school where a teacher still was going to use the cane on me, at this time I was a bigger lad and was not for taking this anymore so I stepped up to him and indicated that if he swung the cane I would throw him out the window, that ended the cane use where I was concerned. Just as well as the classroom was on the second floor.

In general good teachers could teach and control a class without corporal punishment. There was definitely excessive use of corporal punishment however there were some good teachers. There was a head brother came to the secondary school I attended, about 1954, and he banned corporal punishment. He previously taught in “ Joey’s “ Fairview.

I went to primary school in 50′s and secondary boarding school in 60′s.

But for all that, when I see another ‘disclosure’ from the past my reaction is, here comes another hypocrite, looking to make a reputation. Corporal punishment in 50′s and 60′s was the same as it was in 1900 and every year afterwards. I heard that from my grandfather and father.

GIrls got a lot less. It seemed that boys needed it to ensure that they did’nt turn into blackguards etc.

Wasn’t it lovely that simple Simon came up with 1 big word. My trauma was never going to be his was it. Parasite

I often wonder where Skinny Brennan and Brendan Mullally are now. A pair of criminal abusing thugs who beat small kids to a pulp with sticks and cables and fists. They stopped beating me when my dear gentle mum arrived at the school and told them if they ever assaulted me again, my older brothers and their friends, all bikers, had promised that they would be waiting for them at the gates. Cowards. But there were some fantastic teachers and Brothers in that De La Salle school in Ballyfermot. Brother Abe and Br Jack Colman. Decent good men.

I’d say the country would go bankrupt if compensation was ever paid to those who were abused given what is coming to light now. A day didn’t go by in my class that someone didn’t get physically abused.