News Chronicle, London, 22 October 1943

Four boys to be whipped - one of them twice

Ordering four boys aged from 11½ to 13 to be birched for thefts and housebreaking at Dundalk, Ulster, yesterday, District Justice Goff directed that one lad should receive 6 strokes on each of two days, and the others 6 strokes each.

He added: "There is a lot of spurious sympathy being spouted about birching boys. It might do good to some adults if birching was extended to them as well."

As to juveniles, he suggested that the birch should be applied "fairly heavily" and that the parents and an NSPCC inspector should be present.