Note: This article contains descriptions of abuse and mental health distress.

FOR DECADES, MANY children in Ireland experienced verbal and physical abuse and violence in schools that has followed them throughout their lives into adulthood. 

Following the airing of the RTÉ documentary Leathered that looked at violence in schools, we asked our readers at The Journal to share their testimonies.

We received almost 200 submissions from readers in just over one day and more have continued to pour in.

Many of the stories described being hit, intimidated and humiliated at schools across the country from the youngest classes to the oldest.

We published an article last week sharing many of these stories.

Due to the massive volume of submissions we received, we’re publishing a second article today with more of our readers’ stories.

Some of the experiences detailed by readers included:

• “The principal used to hit us every day. He loved to twist your ears until you cried and would then laugh. He would tell you to place your tongue in front of lower teeth and would then punch you in the mouth and laugh.”
• “A border was punched into a corner for not knowing the answer to a religious question. To escape further brutality he managed to get out the door. A few minutes later he opened the door and put his head in with tears running down his face and with a bad stutter tried to say, ‘Sorry Sir’. The bully of a Christian Brother responded: ‘You can stay outside, I’ll see you tonight.’” 
• “One day I was standing in the corner and needed the toilet. I asked to go and was refused so I wet myself and had to stand there until home time cold and wet with a puddle at my feet and in my shoes for everyone to see.”
• “He beat me up and down the corridor, banged my head off the doors either end until another teacher and my younger brother stopped him.”

Here are some our readers’ stories. 

Ellen, who experienced abuse at a school in Wicklow in the 1960s

“She was a really good teacher but she was also a brute who caned us for the least and most spurious and arbitrary infractions. I was punished numerous times – once for coming back into the classroom from break humming under my breath. Another pupil was caned for returning after lunch with a rim of milk around her mouth. And I can’t remember what for, but another pupil was made kneel under her desk all afternoon. Most of us spent time standing in corners as punishments, our backs to the class.

“Once that red mist of her terrible anger descended, we shook in fear. One girl, a quiet individual, actually defecated in class one day, so afraid was she of asking to go to the toilet – requests which were often refused for long periods. Those of us in the lower socio-economic classes, as many of us were, were deemed inferior to others whose parents were professionals, and were held up to ridicule, with other pupils encourage to mock us.

“Worst of all though, in that class with that nun, was the punishment meted out to the girl that sat beside me in our double desk. Today she would be considered to have had an intellectual disability but in those days nothing was said about such and she was in our mainstream class. Even at my young age, I had some innate understanding of her inability to learn in the same way we did. Her copy book was always a mess. She was caned mercilessly and often, she’d tremble in fright and anticipation, as would I, sitting beside her. The rage that I feel at the treatment of that poor unfortunate girl lives within me still and I am in my 60s.

“I did, subsequently meet that nun in the street on a visit to my hometown years later. As she approached me, she looked at me and I at her. And, in that minute, in one look, I knew that she knew that I knew, I hadn’t forgotten, her cruelty to innocent children.”

Anonymous, Dublin from the mid 1980s to early 1990s

“I am left handed and my junior infants teacher used to call me stupid and put me into the corner of the classroom facing it because I couldn’t tie my shoelaces like ‘normal children’. This continued for all the time with her and I was always afraid of making a mistake in my writing so as not to be told I’ll ‘go to hell as a ciotóg’.

“The principal used to hit us every day. He loved to twist your ears until you cried and would then laugh. He would tell you to place your tongue in front of lower teeth and would then punch you in the mouth and laugh. It was a horrible experience. The documentary brought it all back and the bullying was an everyday occurrence. We had one teacher who stood up for us and he was pushed out of the school.

Alan, in schools in Dublin in the 1950s and 60s

“Although I was Dyslexic,  you were considered stupid or lazy at the time. From day one I experienced fear, punishment and cruelty at the hands of Christian Brothers and lay teachers. I carry the memory and images to this day.

“One occasion when I was eight years old: Bath night was on Friday and my mother who washed me noticed red marks across my back and back-side. She asked me how I got them, and I told her that the teacher had caned me on Monday for talking in class. The beating was so bad that the marks remained for the week.

“I remember with horror during religious class how a border was punched into a corner for not knowing the answer to a religious question. To escape further brutality he managed to get out the door. A few minutes later he opened the door and put his head in with tears running down his face and with a bad stutter tried to say, ‘Sorry Sir’. The bully of a Christian Brother responded: ‘You can stay outside, I’ll see you tonight.’

“Although I now live in Clare, my schooling was in Dublin. As a result of my experiences I later became a founder-member of a successful child-centred, new-school-project.”

Anonymous

“I was on the receiving end of multiple physical punishments in a Holy Ghost school, now the Spiritans. I suppose the most upsetting was in third year of secondary school when I forgot my homework journal and was called to the office. The vice principal was there and I was very nervous I remember. He hit me on the hand with a leather strap. It wasn’t the physical pain that upset me but the emotional hurt. I was quite vulnerable as a child.

“In primary school with the Holy Ghosts the physical punishment was very regular. I remember being hit around the ear with a cane. Also remember a kid being carried upside down by a priest.”

Jean, Co Clare, in the 1970s and 1980s

“In primary school, the principal was a nun who had a ruler with two colours. Red and green. If you were slapped with the green side you got to go back to your seat. If you got the red side you had to go stand in a corner facing the wall for the rest of the day.

“One day I was standing in the corner and needed the toilet. I asked to go and was refused so I wet myself and had to stand there until home time cold and wet with a puddle at my feet and in my shoes for everyone to see. One of the older girls in the class took pity on me and asked the nun if she could help me and she also got in trouble.

“In secondary school, our home economics teacher, also a nun, would regularly slap you across the knuckles with a ruler or at the side of the head with her hand for any perceived misdemeanor which could be a little as making a crooked stitch while sewing.”

David, on schools in Co Cork

“In primary school, 2nd class, we had a teacher [who] would invite us to the top of the class to receive our punishment, usually a slap with a ruler on the palm of the hand or the thigh. One day she made the whole class kneel on a hard wood floor with our hands on our heads until she allowed us to stop. I feel like it went on for long time, but it could have only been minutes. I just remember it being very painful.

“Also in that school there were a number of teachers known for firing chalk and dusters at students. I never saw anyone hit but looking back on it, what a crazy thing it was to do.

“One teacher during chestnut season took one of the student’s prized conker. He has racked up a huge winning streak with the conker and the teacher stood in front of the class and repeatedly lashed the conker off the table until it was in bits. The boy was in tears.

“In secondary school we had one Irish teacher who told me to go to the teachers office after school as punishment for messing in class. When I did, he met me and walked me down to a quiet part of the school and into a classroom. He sat me behind a desk and closed the door. He then put his hands on the desk and while facing me began screaming at me into my face. I was terrified.

“We had another teacher for woodwork who clouted me full force with his hands across the back of the head one day. The same teacher used to also pull boys locks as punishment regularly.

“Another teacher, who I was lucky enough not to ever have teach me, was notorious for bullying students. I had one friend who was picked on endlessly by him. Another was also threatened by him and eventually ended up retaliating and pinned the teacher up against the wall.

“So many of the stories I read in this week’s piece reminded me of my school years. I just thought it was normal, and that there was nothing we could do about it.”

Joseph from Tipperary

“When I started school aged five in Co Tipperary, I picked up the pencil in my left hand and each time I did the teacher beat my left hand with a ruler. This continued until I eventually started to write with my right hand.

“[At a different school], the principal beat us if we didn’t know our lessons in Irish History. The principal accused me of something I did not do, he punch me knocking me to the ground and then he kicked me a number of times when I was lying on the ground. I was 12 or 13 years old at that time.”

Adrian

“In 2012, I wrote a thank you letter to a priest – a teacher at my boarding school during [the 1950s]. I said that ‘perhaps the single thing that has brought most joy to my life (apart from my family) has been classical music. I owe this in a very large part to you. For all of this I thank you’.

“However, there was a darker side to my years at that school which has also had a profound effect on my life. Another priest had responsibility for discipline. He used the cane with ferocity. I had always assumed that his behaviour was what a child should expect. Now, I see that he went beyond what might have been acceptable even then.

“Once whilst playing hurling in the yard with an empty boot polish tin lid, the lid hit the priest as he swooped in on us. He took me to his room. ‘Do not think I enjoy beating children,’ he said, ‘before I can do so I have to work myself into a fury.’ Perhaps idiotically, I replied, ‘in which case you should not be in charge of children.’ As you can imagine this had the desired effect and I was beaten very severely on both hands and then on the behind with a bamboo stick with a piece of lead in the end. He then lowered my pants and touched my behind, asking ‘does it hurt a lot?’. As an adult I realised that his behaviour was serious physical, sexual, sadistic abuse which (judging by the protrusion on his cassock) gave him sexual pleasure.

“He beat me many times in the years that followed. My impotent fury at his treatment left in me a deep resentment of authority and a strong determination to fight back which has been a problem not just for me but for those most dear to me.”

Seamus, about a school in Mayo in the 1970s

“It was a living hell. Drunk Christian Brothers and some lay teachers with leathers and dowel sticks beat us daily. The principal threatened to send me to Letterfrack which I hadn’t a clue what that place was about. Boys peeing in their trousers while being hammered was common daily. I made sure my kids never had to go through that. Will never forget the fear and being at such a young age.”

Tony

“When we started in secondary school, all the country lads came in from surrounding schools. One lad in particular must have been almost six foot tall and muscle from head to toe.

“We had a teacher who was small and a smack on the face was his preferred method of punishment. One day, this teacher picked on [the tall student] who was not the smartest lad in the class but was definitely ‘street smart’.

“It all happened in a split second! All I remember was the teacher raising his hand and then suddenly went flying backwards across the classroom landing in a heap in the corner, as [the student] saw it coming. We were all gobsmacked! [The student] remained calm as the teacher jumped up and ran out the door.

“We never saw [the student] again as he was expelled from school the same day.”

Anonymous, in the 1980s

“I was the most intelligent student in the school but had crippling OCD (still do, it’s worse if anything) and anytime [a particular teacher] got something wrong I pulled him up on it. I couldn’t stop myself even when I knew what was coming.

“Was hammered as least once a month as well as having sliotars and chalk thrown at me. The one that stands out is when I broke my arm (visibly broken) at 11 o’clock break and having to stay in school because the cigire was coming in (I was the cleverest child in the class) but even though I fainted twice – once when he rubbed my arm when the cigire was there – he still made me stay until 3.

“After that he terrorised me. Another time he beat me up and down the corridor, banged my head off the doors either end until another teacher and my younger brother stopped him.”

Daniel, Cavan, in the 1980s

“I was in 1st class, maybe five or six, when our teacher would use a wooden ruler turned sideways to hit our knuckles. He would pull us up by our ears, twisting them until they clicked.

“On one occasion he disciplined a ‘big boy’ in 5th class in front of us by punching him so hard he fell through a fire escape door and apparently broke his arm. There were no consequences to this. It made me feel distrusting of authority figures or people with power over others forever after.”

M.S., in a school in Wicklow in the 1960s

“I sat beside a girl who had stammer, and when the teacher asked her a question and she stammered through the answer she was severely beaten with the “bata fàda”. This nun also ridiculed any girl from a disadvantaged or poor background and would bring them to the top of the class and encourage the entire class to ridicule the girls also, thereby teaching us, at an early age, how to become bullies just like them.

“I witnessed girls being hit with heavy books and sticks. Mental abuse, demeaning references to girls who might have been struggling with school work.

“I vividly remember a nun invited myself and my twin sister to the music room to learn how to play the violin. There were approximately six violins in that room. We were doing very well at the music lessons.

“One day this nun sent a letter home instructing our parents to buy us a violin each to practice at home. My Mother wrote to her informing her there was no money in our house to pay for violins. On reading my Mother’s note the next day that horrible nun grabbed myself and my sister, opened the door of the music room and physically pushed us down the six steps from the room into the hallway.

“That was sixty years ago and I remember it vividly. That was the end of us being taught the violin.

“The nuns in the school during my time there ruled the school on fear, violence, bullying, and ridicule. I saw first hand examples of this every single day. I hope they are rotting in hell for the lives they destroyed and the trauma they inflicted.”

Anonymous, describing their experience of abuse at schools in the 1970s and 1980s

“2nd Class – My teacher was new. One day she hit me across the face so hard it left an imprint. I could not lie when I got home. The mark on my face could not be brushed off as a yard fight. It was an adult’s hand.

“My mother, a timid person, went up to her the next day and told her never to hit me again and she then ran out of the school crying. I made sure that never happened again.

“On several occasions I was hit with a leather strap on both the hands and the back of the legs by the head brother in his office. Run of the mill for the time and that in and of itself would not have inspired me to email you.

“5th Class – this is where it took a turn for the worse. I believe [the teacher] was a decent man but left for health reasons. They brought in a sub who beat me and others. He would hit us across the tips of the fingers with the wooden leg off a chair – yes the leg of a chair – top part approx 1 inch square. Blood was not a hinderance.

“He insisted that we learn [the anthem of the county the teacher was from]. He tried to teach us that and little else. Many of us refused and he beat us. One day after class I doubled back to take the chair leg get rid of it. To my dismay when I opened the door he was there and was stealing money out of a tin of Trocaire money we were collecting throughout lent that year (it was not a box but a Quality Street or Roses round or hexagonal tin). A beating ensued with threats should I ever tell of what I saw. I went back another time and did get the chair leg.

“First year in secondary school – in the first few days [a teacher] opened a massive gash in the nose of a classmate with a yard stick in the chemistry room for the crime of whistling while he was in the preparation room.

“2nd year – the top of the teacher’s stool was off. The bottom of the round stool seat was plywood. A religion teacher was in the class teaching when I turned and spoke to the lad next to me. He nonchalantly walked down past me with the stool seat in his hand. He passed, turned and then came straight down on my crown with the bottom of the seat. I was bloodied and hurt. The incident was not reported at school or home. He was another nasty scumbag. He routinely beat us if he got wind that acted up in any class we had with another [specified] teacher.

“3rd year and on – The head brother hit me many times, often open-handed across the face. He also took pleasure in tormenting us other ways too.

“Another teacher took extreme pleasure hurting many of us. When I was in 6th year he punched me in the face in front of a class of 2ne year students.

“There were a few others that were less violent but violent nonetheless. And, in fairness, there were many good teachers too. Their only fault was that they never protected us, and to some degree of certainty, they knew.

“I could say more.

“Was I abused? Most certainly. Was I afraid of these psychopaths? No. My refusal to be broken by them no doubt led to worse treatment.

“I went on to have a tremendously successful career. I will be 60 next year. I am married to the same woman for over 40 years with three kids and five grandchildren. We are blessed, content and happy.

“The only unfortunate part of it for me is that I think my success came not because of them but to spite them. That, for whatever reason, hurts me just a little more than that inaugural stinger across the face.”