Letter: We were slapped at school for misdemeanours but one kind teacher could not bring himself to do it

If may add my pennies’ worth to the letter ‘The Bible teaches clearly that ‘corporal punishment’ is essential to proper disciplining of a child’ (April 20).

Specifically with regard the following extract taken from the letter, "The Bible teaches very clearly that corporal punishment is essential to proper disciplining of a child."

I was a pupil in a religious run boarding school in the 1950s and early 1960s in Ireland. During my time at the school there was a regime of corporal punishment for misdemeanours. Boys were slapped with a leather type instrument which was a painful instrument when used for slapping and the punishment was generally administered by the school's scholastics rather than the ordained clerics. The latter simply wrote out punishment cheques which were ‘cashed’ with an assigned scholastic.

However, there was one scholastic assigned to carry out this unpleasant task who was a person of deep humanity and kindness: he could not bear to administer such a painful punishment on us boys whom he described as angels. Whenever we went to him to ‘cash our cheques’ he would simply slap his desk to make the appropriate slapping sound and ask us to pretend we were in agony when exiting.

We could have won many Oscars for the manner in which we displayed ‘our suffering’ on leaving his room and, as far as I am aware and thank goodness, no one ever spilled the beans.

Micheál O'Cathail, By email