CORPORAL PUNISHMENT OF GIRLS IN IRISH SCHOOLS IN 1937

Vintage Spanking Magazines

What a strange place Ireland long ago was, back in the 1930s. The question of corporal punishment was hardly controversial. It was good for school kids, no matter their age, and especially for females, even those as old as 19 years old apparently. The more beatings the merrier, most of the populace seemed to agree. One person writes the proper punishment was to turn the girl’s uniform inside out and make her stand in front of the class. Charming.

“Anyone who has had any experience of children, knows that the only way to deal with a refractory girl (no matter how old she is) is by a sound spanking. I have seen my own sisters beaten by every form of appliance from a hair-brush to a cane, and always resulting in their benefit.” – Letter to Dublin Evening Mail, August 1937. And don’t be so surprised about punishment for unmarried mothers, the Mother and Baby atrocities, or attitudes to women that were beyond Victorian exploded into massive scandal decades later.