'He would pull children off the floor by their ears' - Viewers react to last night's RTÉ documentary on Corporal Punishment

Viewers have reacted to the powerful RTÉ documentary, Leathered: Violence in Irish Schools which aired on RTÉ One last night, Wednesday October 30, 2024.

The documentary sheds new light on the use of Corporal Punishment in schools, and the impact that the culture of violence it provoked continues to have on generations. 

Many people have taken to Twitter/X since last night to share their thoughts and even their own personal experiences with Corporal Punishment with some even going as far as to publicly name the teachers and priests who abused them.

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One person tweeted: "The more documentaries you watch, the more you wonder what the hell the “good old days” were, or what type of ireland some people want to return to?

"My neighbours brother was disabled and had intellectual difficulties and got beaten regularly for failing to understand lessons when the poor kid had no hope of learning in a regular school. Hearing these stories became normal. what a country"

Another posted: "Watching Leathered reminds me of a male teacher in Abbeyside, Dungarvan, Waterford who used to target children who were weaker, poorer, vulnerable.

"I remember us standing in circle in classroom and he would pull children off the floor by their ears. He was a cruel and nasty man"

Multiple generations of Irish Men & Women destroyed by the hands of animals. #Leathered: Violence in Irish Schools on @rte right now. Harrowing stuff.

— Séamus Ó Cearbhaill (@s_ocearbhaill) October 30, 2024

One person posted a memory of their school headmaster who continued to physically abuse children after Corporal Punishment was outlawed, saying: "The headmaster in my primary school was a vicious man. I was taken to him in junior infants to get the cane.

"When that was banned, he used his hand, calling it a sidewinder. He was enabled by the priest and local sergeant."

Others pointed out the lack of female voices in the documentary including Sociology Professor Pat O'Connor

No account by any woman who experienced physical violence in Irish schools on the RTE 1 prog Leathered. Five brief female voices can be heard in the background in the last part of the 1 hr 15 mins- invisible victims. V strange decision to focus only on men @RTE1

— Pat O'Connor (@ProfPatOConnor) October 30, 2024