Corporal punishment leaves legacy of terror with victims

In 2023, corporal punishment - or violent discipline at the hands of caregivers - was cited by UNICEF as the most common form of violence against children.

It is estimated that 86% of the world's children are not protected by law worldwide.

The definition of corporal punishment is physical punishment, such as caning or flogging.

Its existence in schools has historically been justified by the common-law doctrine in loco parentis.

Essentially, teachers are considered authority figures granted the same rights as parents to discipline and punish children in their care if they do not adhere to the set rules.

In 1982, corporal punishment was prohibited in Irish schools following an administrative decision by the Minister for Education John Boland.

However, it took another number of years for the culture within schools to change completely.

Teachers were not liable to criminal prosecution until 1997, when the rule of law allowing "physical chastisement" was explicitly abolished.

Read more: Calls to widen inquiry into historical sexual abuse in schools to include Corporal Punishment

Prior to its prohibition, many children as young as six years of age endured physical abuse in schools they attended with unimaginable fear and terror.

While there were "rules and regulations" around corporal punishment, these were often ignored or broken on a daily (often hourly) basis according to some victims and survivors.

During the 20th century, the Department of Education stated that corporal punishment should only be administered for grave transgression.

It said that under no circumstances should it be used "for mere failure at lessons", that "only a light cane or rod may be used" and that it should be "inflicted only on the open hand".

Corporal punishment impacting lives throughout history of State

The impact of corporal punishment goes back generations.

Indeed, the Museum of Childhood in Ireland features an interesting case that involved a group of parents in Co Mayo during the 1930s.

The parents wrote to the Department of Education in 1929 with allegations of numerous violations of the corporal punishment regulations.

When there was no action, almost all the students were taken from the school by their parents, which resulted in a police investigation under the School Attendance Act.

When he looked into it, the Divisional Inspector of the Department of Education discovered issues around corporal punishment at the school and recommended the removal of a number of teachers against whom allegations were made.

However, the Deputy Chief Inspector declared that the teachers should be fined instead, for "non observance of the rules regarding the infliction of corporal punishment."

In 1932, the Department of Education concluded that "the failure of the teachers to observe the corporal punishment regulations in spirit and in fact was probably a temporary lapse on their part" (Maguire and Cinnéide, 2005: 641).

The story highlights how little was done when allegations were investigated over 90 years ago, and that continued over the decades.

While RTÉ’s Leathered documentary highlights the impact of physical abuse in recent years, there are echoes of the parental response in Mayo back in the 1930s peppered throughout the programme.

Mothers in particular took action to stop their children from being beaten in schools in the 1960s and 1970s.

Norman Murray recalls his mother chasing a teacher up the road with a boiling kettle of water to run him from the house.

Legacy of beatings remains with victims and survivors

The campaign group Reform also demanded that corporal punishment end.

One of its protests involved burning leathers and canes purchased from suppliers just days before a march to the Department of Education.

Founder Frank Crummey told the RTÉ documentary that they were viewed as "cranks" at the time.

While corporal punishment was banned in schools in the early eighties, the Republic of Ireland remained one of the few European countries that did not ban physical punishment by parents.

In 2015, the European Committee of Social Rights concluded that Irish domestic law violated Article 17 of the European Social Charter.

The former Independent Senator Jillian Van Turnhout proposed an amendment to the Government's Children First Bill on child protection.

All forms of corporal punishment of children were definitively outlawed with the passing of the Children First Act 2015, just nine years ago.

It is clear today that the legacy of the beatings remains with victims and survivors.

Victims and survivors have called on the Government to widen the Commission of Investigation into sexual abuse in schools to include corporal punishment or conduct a separate scoping inquiry into physical abuse in schools.