A woman has told of her horror after seeing a mother beating her three children with a stick in public.
The witness, known only as Kay, spoke to Neil Prendeville on Cork's Red FM about the shocking incident, which took place in Cork city centre, RSVP Live reports.
She said: "It was about a quarter past two and I heard a loud voice coming over from the top of North Main Street.
"People were looking, so of course I had to look for myself.
"I saw this woman and three little girls crossing the road.
"She had a big crooked stick, like something you would break off a tree.
"She was beating the three children across the back, herding them across the road as if they were three little pups."
The horrified bystander said that for a moment she thought they must have been filming "an Oliver Twist movie".
"I looked around to see where the cameras were because I thought it had to be a film," she said.
She said that the woman stood her daughters, who all looked to be under the age of five, up against the wall outside a shop before hitting one of them again.
"Before she went into the shop she hit one of them on the shoulder with the stick and said 'don't move'," Kay continued.
"The three little creatures (were) standing there terrified.
"She went into the shop next door, but before she went into the shop she said to the children 'I am sick of the Santa stuff!'"
Kay added that a crowd of at least 30 people had gathered at this stage and some of the people present gave out to the woman.
"Some people did say something to her, I don't know what it was," she said.
"I had to go the other way but they followed her - I'd love to know what happened.
"Those little girls were petrified. They weren't crying, just pure fear on their faces."
