Cork duo relive culture of corporal punishment in new TV documentary

Corporal punishment was banned in Irish schools in 1982, but was it ever OK to hit schoolchildren?

In new documentary, Leathered, on RTÉ1 on Wednesday at 9.35pm, those who suffered in our schools speak for the first time about a culture of violence that shattered many lives and left people seeking answers.

Among those speaking are poet, author and broadcaster Theo Dorgan and his life-long friend and schoolmate, film festival co-director Mick Hannigan, who relive their experiences at the North Monastery School in Cork in the 1960s.

Navan-based retired GP Dr Mary Randles also features - along with her late husband, Dr Patrick Randles, they sought to stop children being hit in school.

We also hear from Frank Crummey and Martin Reynolds, founder members of the campaign group, Reform.

Now in their 80s, they faced fierce resistance from the Church and State when they campaigned to have corporal punishment banned throughout the 1960s and ’70s.

The recent publication of the report of the Scoping Inquiry into historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders once again highlighted the historic failure of the State to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

Amidst an outpouring of public grief and anger, the Government announced plans for the establishment of a full State Inquiry.

But some of those who contacted the Inquiry team also sought to highlight the physical abuse they experienced at schools around the country.

They were told that their alleged abuse fell outside the scope of the Inquiry team.

Leathered shines a new light on the use of Corporal Punishment in Irish schools, and the impact which the culture of violence it provoked continues to have on generations of Irish students.

Documentary-maker John Downes critically examines new alleged abuses in religious and lay schools involving pupils who to this day harbour physical and mental scars.

With first person testimony from victims who have never spoken before about their ordeals, and unique archive illustrating a formative period in Irish history, this timely documentary will give voice to abuses that to date have not been fully acknowledged or understood.

It also asks what can be done to help the victims of physical abuse in our school system, some of whom have never recovered from their experiences at the hands of the same people who were meant to be keeping them safe.