Shocking RTE documentary lays bare horrific physical abuse suffered by students in Irish schools
"On this particular morning, the Brother called me up. ‘Get up here’ he says, and the first thing I got was a couple of clatters around the head, my face, I think maybe six or 12 slaps I got off him with a leather strap"
Survivors of horrific physical abuse in schools spoke out in a shocking documentary aired on RTÉ television on Wednesday night.
The powerful Leathered: Violence in Irish Schools, which is available on the RTÉ Player, shed light on the widespread use of corporal punishment. It looked at the abhorrent use of a leather strap to beat children and the long-lasting effect it has had on them.
Questions have also been raised about how abuse was dealt with in the past. The documentary unveiled how just 108 allegations of physical abuse by teachers against pupils were recorded by the Department of Education between 1962 and 1982.
READ MORE: Inquest hears young woman found dead in bedroom by mother after taking drugs on night out in Dublin
The Department also revealed to RTÉ it holds a further nine allegations for the five years after the introduction of the 1982 ban, bringing to 117 allegations over a 20-year period.
In the film, survivor Peter Kane from Navan, Co Meath, said: “Every day, there was an element of fear going in. He could kick off for the simplest of reasons. On this particular morning, the Brother called me up. ‘Get up here’ he says, and the first thing I got was a couple of clatters around the head, my face, I think maybe six or 12 slaps I got off him with a leather strap.
“I didn’t cry, that in itself was a signal for him to carry on beating you and he done so, and bounced my head off the blackboard, bounced my body around the room, knocked me up against his desk, and at one stage I collapsed and fell on the ground because he done something to my back.”
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