The pattern of use and extent of corporal punishment in Irish schools seemed to vary with the management, either lay or religious, and with the type of school ( i.e. national school or fee-paying school). My experience is of a village national school with all lay teachers but managed by the parish priest and with most pupils coming from working class background. This was fairly typical of Irish primary schools at the time. The secondary school was managed by the county council, through a body called the VEC, and was relatively new. Before the establishment of this school most working-class pupils would have left full-time education after primary school while those a bit better off would have gone to fee-paying secondary schools often run by religious orders.