In southern Ireland the government essentially handed over the education system to Roman Catholic orders such as The Sisters of Mercy and, mainly, The Christian Brothers. The cane and ferula (commonly known as “The Leather” or Irish Leather”) were regularly used. In secondary schools the leather was more common. A relative of the Scottish tawse, the ferula had no tails and was typically a blade of leather around 18″ long (but varied 16″ to 22″), about 1.5″ to 2″ wide and about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick. It consisted of one to 3 layers of leather. It featured a shaped handle at one end,some had a metal disc inserted at the striking end to add effect, some were reinforced with whalebone to add stiffness and, other than with the single layer models, stitched around its perimeter. Some were brown leather, some black.
CP in Irish Church Schools2
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