Note: This article contains descriptions of abuse that some readers may find distressing
TIED TO CHAIRS, strangled and ruled by fear.
These are some of the experiences of past pupils of schools across the country.
Following the airing of the RTÉ documentary Leathered that looked at violence in schools, we asked readers to send their testimonies.
We got almost 200 submissions from readers in just over one day.
Each story was unique but there were common themes across the schools, most of which were run by religious orders.
The now-adults say that their school days were mired with beatings, humiliation and degradation.
Some of the stories told by readers included:
They also told of the long-term effects of the abuse, with some saying they still suffer with self-esteem issues, anxiety and nightmares about school decades after leaving.
Parents, in most readers’ cases, did not help protect children, sometimes due to the power religious figures had in communities.
Here are our readers’ stories.
John (65) from Meath
“I was battered black and blue every day at the hands of two Christian Brothers … over tables and academic stuff. I now know I had dyslexia.
“They knew nobody would come in as my father was dead. It has affected me all my life.”
The fear on a Sunday evening when the music of The Riordans came on RTÉ still brings shivers to my spine.
Tom from Waterford, says the abuse occurred in the late 1980s/early 1990s
“I remember a boy asked to go to the bathroom. He was not allowed. When the boy asked again, [the teacher] made him stand in place as punishment.
“After some time the boy could not hold it in and wet his pants in front of his classmates.
“I vividly remember how annoyed [the teacher] was when the boy broke down in tears and told him that he wet himself. I vividly remember how broken the boy was at this moment.”
“Another boy told his parents after a particularly bad hiding (repeatedly kicked in the stomach while laying on the floor). The parents came to the school … [the teacher] never touched that boy again.
“He did however manipulate kids in the class into bullying the boy. He was calculated in how he did this. The boy lost his immediate group of friends.”
Eimear (32) from Galway
“I started school at four years of age and have very clear memories of regularly being belted across the knuckles with a weapon, a tin whistle, by my baby infants teacher.
“This could occur due to any age-appropriate slight absent mindedness or misgiving. She would do this to all of us. I also have memories of her being very rough, by shoving, dragging by the arms and slapping some other kids across the arse.
“It was very widely known and accepted in the school and community by other teachers and parents that this teacher physically hurt children … I think she retired maybe four years after I left her class with an unblemished and unquestioned reputation.”
Anonymous
“When I was seven using the toilet, the light bulb blew. I told the teacher and she handed me a note to go to the headmaster with. When he read the note he got very angry, wrapped his hands around my neck and strangled me, picking me up off the ground.
“What saved me was the office girl who walked in and caught him. She was screaming at him to stop. He let go and I fell to the ground fighting for air. I’ll never forget it.”
Ava (73) from Dublin
“The teacher, a nun, was giving singing lessons. A boy who couldn’t pitch a note properly was continuously beaten on the head and body with a long thick cane.
“She hit him and then demanded he sing again. He tried to sing and each time he couldn’t reach the note, she hit him again. This went on for a long time. I was terrified for myself and the other child.
He had Down Syndrome. I only learned that years later. I can never forget that incident.
Anonymous
“It was often someone who struggled academically (I still think I’m stupid at maths).
“Unfortunately there was a small group of boys who were singled out. They were lads who had learning difficulties and needed additional support. It was non-existent in those days.
“They got hit every time for not knowing what the answers were.”
Tadg from Cork
“Like many of my generation, I experienced violence and psychological torture over my school years. One incident though has remained in my mind and it occured while I was in second or third class.
“During an Irish spelling class the female teacher would call out a word in English and one by one the pupils would have to say and spell the word she chose in Irish. For the boys who failed this test she had them stand at the top of the classroom. The girls who failed she ignored.
One by one she put a ribbon in each boy’s hair and she laughed as they cried in embarrassment and fear.
“She had them stand there with the ribbons on for the duration of the class.
“I will never ever forget my own relief at passing the test and also those boys crying. Sometime later I pissed myself in fear right there in the classroom.
“I walked out in the middle of the first exam of my Inter Cert and never went back, and to this day still feel the relief of knowing I would never enter a school again.”
Alan from Tipperary,says the abuse occurred in the late 1980s
“It is not to say that we were a class of angels but the level of abuse was not warranted. The abuse constituted humiliation, pushing, punching, slapping, kicking, throwing objects (chalk and wooden dusters) at students and pulling students out of their desks via their side-locks of hair.
“One particular teacher would have students exact physical violence on their behalf. This involved the victim standing at their desk, bending over and the student next to them to take a ruler and flick it across their buttocks (something we called a “cheeser” at the time). This could indeed physically hurt but was more of a perverse mind game than physical retribution for whatever misdemeanour that had occurred.
“There was a difference in how students were treated. Those who were heavily involved in hurling were not subject to the same abuse and were instead revered.”
Anonymous
“I got a beating so bad … that one of my older brothers sneaked out of school to ring my father.
My dad contacted the gardaí who did nothing. I distrust the gardaí ever since.
“Beatings in [the school] were frequent and vicious. Looking back, it’s lucky that no child ended up with a brain injury. It felt like a prison.”
Con from Cork, says the abuse occurred in the 1960s
“[The teacher] singled out children from the poorer families. He was looked after by presents of bags of potatoes and bottles of whiskey by the landowners and business people. The poorer families like mine had just about enough to feed ourselves.
“I feared every day going into that school and the last few days of holidays was like hell.
“I was beaten with a stick all over my body if I did not know my spelling or got my sums wrong and I was not the only one.”
Ray from Donegal
“I experienced violence and bullying from one teacher on a daily basis. He only picked on weak children and poorer families. There’s not one day that goes past that I don’t think of that animal.
“He destroyed me and of my dear friends. I’d say up to 200 [children].”
Anonymous
“I attended a national school in Kerry from 1970 to 1982. The culture of violence was phenomenal. Everyday beatings occurred.
“The beatings were predominantly aimed at the male students but the female students did not escape, although the treatment for misbehaving (very minor offences) for girls was less severe.
“On one occasion, my mother went to the school and threatened the teacher with police action, after one of my sisters was beaten by the headmistress.
“The violence I witnessed at school had a profound effect upon myself and my siblings.”
Anonymous
“I recall being hit six times with a wooden compass that was used for the blackboard. This was for leaving the school at lunchtime and going up to [the local shop].
“[The teacher] stood myself and my two friends on the stage in the gym in front of all the other students while he hit us. It was like a public flogging.
“I recall my hand being swollen for a week and I was to afraid to tell my parents for fear of getting hit by my father for leaving the school.”
Gina (60) from Dublin
“The nun was so cruel. Kicking us and hitting us was her routine. We were told she was transferred from a Magdalene home to our school.
“As teenagers we didn’t understand, but we all hated and feared her. Looking back now as a 60-year-old, my heart goes out to all the poor women in any home she was in. We got to go home after school.
Anonymous
“In Fourth and Fifth Class, my lay teacher was fresh out of college and had no skills to control the classroom.
She used to tie us to the chair with a skipping rope.
“She used to have us crawl on the floor with the inkwell from the desk on our head, and if the ink well fell, we would get a clatter from her cane.
“You could never bring these incidents home to your parents. I have spoken to friends about this treatment and they are in utter shock. Sometimes I feel that this has held me back in life.”
Niall from Limerick, says the abuse occurred in the 1980s
“After our gym sessions we would be lined up facing the wall while the two teachers kicked footballs at us. It hurt more because we couldn’t see the ball coming and therefore couldn’t react. This is just one example.”
Anonymous
“Like my father and his friends, I have occasionally discussed the abuse we suffered with my former classmates when I bumped into them over the years.
“While these conversations were generally reminiscent, I know the reality is that the abuse suffered by us at the hands of these animals has had a significant emotional impact and has had a general negative impact on our lives and education.”
Derek (61) from Dublin, says the abuse occurred in the 1970s
“I’d put my abuse memories in a box and buried them a long time ago. Now it’s all I think about.
“We had one teacher who used to use a cane on the back of my legs then send me to the headmaster to would give me six of the best on one hand but if he was annoyed he would give you six on each hand.
“We also had a teacher who for no reason would send the duster (a heavy piece of wood) through the air to hit you on the head.
“They got away with so much. It still makes me sad that I didn’t stand up for myself. ”
Anonymous
“I experienced violence every day at school in the 1980s. It reached such a point in secondary school that I fought back against it and was expelled as a result of me standing up to violent aggression from teachers.
“I also suffered sexual abuse from the Presentation Brothers in primary school, which I believe led to my anger issues going in to secondary school, where by I struggled to trust any of the teachers and had several violent encounters with them.
“The Presentation Brothers were mostly the perpetrators of such violence and tried to pick on the most vulnerable kids in my classes.
“I witnessed such abuse on a daily basis but, because of the culture of not calling out abuse by religious orders, children such as myself were beaten into silence whenever we tried to speak up.
“I feel nothing has really changed as these religious orders, or the church on the whole have never been held to account for their brutality and sexual deviance.”
Larry (51) from Dublin
“[The teacher] had what we called the ‘blood stick’, which was a bamboo stick covered in red insulating tape with a lump of lead on the end. You knew when the blood stick came out you were going to be beaten.
“My worst experience was whilst waiting on our communion photos to be taken, she gave us maths to do. So I brought mine up to her and I got one sum wrong and she lost it. The stick came out and she battered me with it and dragged me around the room and shook the living daylights out of me.
“My buttons on my shirt all popped off, the string on my dickeybow broke, and I could no longer attach my frill to the front of my shirt because all the buttons were gone. The collar on my shirt was all ripped.
“My communion suit was in bits as well as myself. Hence, I have no photos of my school communion photos. as I was in bits.
“The teacher made some excuse that I was bold and wouldn’t listen to her.”
Anonymous
“I remember a girl back in the early ’90s in our 5th class bringing a metal ruler to school. It was unusual since most of us only had wooden ones back then.
“She was just using it to draw lines in her copybook when [the teacher] noticed it. He walked over, took the ruler from her, and struck her knuckles repeatedly, right there in front of everyone.
She started crying after the first hit, but he kept going.
“[The teacher] was eventually removed from his position in the late ’90s, though I believe he still retired on a full pension. He should be held accountable for the abuse he inflicted. He still lives in the community.”
Brian from Dublin
“It was to say the least a nightmare. Constant beatings and mocking, encouraging the class to join in. His favourite was to stand in front of me as I sat at my desk and stand on my feet.
“The experience of abuse and mockery destroyed my confidence for years. I could never comprehend why I received this treatment. I was a good student.
“As a consequence, I started mitching from school. Eight years of age and mitching … trying to bury it in my mind.
“I never told my parents what was really going on. I spoke to an uncle of mine recently about my mother who had asked him to bring me to school, making sure I went in. I screamed and fought him not to go.
“In the end, my mother, at her wits’ end, took me out of [that school] halfway through the term and sent me to the local national school. It took me a long time to settle.”
Anonymous
[One of the nuns] would call you to the top of the class, lift your skirt and beat the back of your legs with a cane.
[Another nun] would make you stand at the back of the class for hours (in your slippers). She would stand in front of you with her heels standing on your toes. No matter how painful it got you didn’t move as it would last longer.”
Catherine from Cork, says the abuse occurred in the 1970s
“I was maybe 7 or 8 and one boy did something to upset the nun teaching us, I don’t know what. She dragged him up to the top of the room, made him pull his pants down, and bend over her desk. She hit him repeatedly with a stick.
“I can’t ever get that picture out of my mind actually. He was so small and slight and this heavily built nun, in her black skirts and rosary beads, was beating the living daylights out of him.
“The nuns were so nasty though. It wasn’t just physical violence, it was emotional and psychological as well. They made you feel like you were nothing.”
Anonymous
“I was taught by nuns who had a baseball bat and would beat us. Worse still, when we got something wrong, they made us kneel in front of the class for the break period.
I remember a girl in my class had dry skin and the nun made her sit on her own at the back of the class. We weren’t allowed near her.
Gerry from Dublin
“The very first day, the teacher gave everyone two slaps each so we would know what to expect from school in the years ahead.
“When we went into 2nd class the beating got a whole lot more vicious.
“[The teacher] put me and three others at the back of the class and didn’t teach us for the year and then passed us on to the next year. We got beating after beating every day.”
Anonymous
“I started school in about 1977 and saw abuse and violence.
“I witnessed [a teacher] put a young boy on a sash window one day facing the road and pulled his trousers and underwear down.”
“[Another teacher] would make children stand on tables until they got dizzy and fell down.
“Another habit he had was to walk around the room with his hand down the back of his trousers and inside his briefs. He would take his hand out and place his fingers into children’s mouths to discipline them.”
John from Monaghan, says the abuse occurred in the 1980s
“I was dragged from my desk, pulled by my hair into the corner of my classroom and punched repeatedly in my stomach and around my head.
“I was 13 years old. He was a middle-aged male teacher. He was well known for his violence throughout the school.
“The priests – not all of them of course – used canes and leather straps on your hands and backside. This was done at the end of study periods for talking in class.”
Fergus from Westmeath, says the abuse occurred in the late 1990s
“Many of my teachers were ex-Defence Forces, and part of the strange rituals in the school included marching us up and down like soldiers before we went back to class after break.
“In one incidence a teacher asked me to read louder in Irish class. For whatever reason, my second attempt was not to his liking and in a fury he raced down to my desk, and struck me full force with an open-handed slap across my face, knocking me out of the desk with the force of the blow.
“I sat there sobbing for the rest of the class until break. I was ten years old.”
Anonymous
“When the bell rang I remember the terror and fear that ripped through the boys to scramble as fast as possible to get into your designated class lines.
“[The teacher] would come out and inspect the lines and god help anyone that was out of place.
“I remember very clearly sprinting to get into my designated line one day and making it just in time, as he was walking by… but another student was late to the line and pushed in from the other side of the line knocking me out of it.
“Even though [the teacher] could clearly see what had happened he stormed up to me, grabbing my clothes at the shoulder and hitting me six or seven times across the left side of my face.
“I wet myself with fear, shock and pain. I was 10 years of age. This left long-lasting emotional and mental damage.”
Anonymous
“[The teacher] had a diary where he recorded your name, date and times you were sent to him. The more entries, the worse the beating.
“I was sent to him a good few times and he would beat me by punching me hard into my arms, shoulders and back with full force … He’d shout horrible vile abuse and classes nearby could hear him. He knew this.
“He was a terrible man who enjoyed beating you knowing he was thought of as a hard man and nothing would be done to him. It was his job in the school.
“I could not concentrate on my classes at the fear. I wasn’t the brightest in the class. I think I had ADHD, which wasn’t even thought of at the time.
“[The teacher] always told me I was thick and I believed him.
“I am 62 now and I can only remember all the beatings, nothing happy or fun of my time in [school].”
Some quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.
These are just some of the responses The Journal received. We will be running the second part of this article with more stories early next week.
Support is available
One in Four provides support for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse; you can call 01 662 4070 or email info@oneinfour.ie
An extensive list of support services, for people in Ireland and abroad, can be read here.
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