County Roscommon mural remembers abolition of corporal punishment in schools

A mural, commissioned for the gable wall of the former De La Salle Brothers school in Ballaghaderreen, will be officially unveiled on Friday, July 4th at 2 p.m. by Grace Boland TD, daughter of the Minister for Education in 1982, John Boland.

The mural is in remembrance of the abolition of corporal punishment in 1982 under Minister Boland.

The De La Salle Brothers school later became St. John’s National School and is now home to the town’s Family Resource Centre. The mural highlights the huge shift from education based on fear to education based on cheer.

In 1890, the De La Salle Brothers were invited to Ballaghaderreen by Bishop John Lyster. The town became a member of the French Orders Irish Province on August 20th, 1890 when the first De La Salle Brothers arrived in Ballaghaderreen and took charge of the boys’ school.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the school began to operate and the Brothers moved to their house in 1910. In 1982 a seismic shift took place, when the then Minister for Education, John Boland, put in place a departmental administrative decision that prohibited corporal punishment in Irish schools.

The mural highlights the removal of the leather strap and cane and other forms of corporal punishment. Three years later, the Brothers departed Ballaghaderreen.

Ireland outlawed all forms of corporal punishment in 2015, through the Children’s First Act.