I am struck on the one hand, by those accounts of punishment which seem to border on fantasy and on the other, to the outright denials that corporal punishment ever took place. I am in my late fifties and can add some first-hand accounts from an Irish perspective. As the forum is primarily about British schools I am unsure if the following is directly relevant however I have cousins in both Scotland ( near Glasgow) and England ( Walsall) and I do remember comparing our,(my sister’s and I’s) experience with theirs. I started school at the end of the 50s and finished at the beginning of the 70s so I am primarily writing about the 60s