Every Shrove Tuesday until very recently, in the Co Cork towns of Blarney and Cobh, the girls’ school would close about an hour before the boys’, to give the girls a chance to get home safely. Sometimes you’d even see the local Garda sergeant making himself conspicuous at the school gates, in an attempt to temper the chaos that was about to unfold.

This was Skelliking Day – aka Skelliging or Skeleton Day – when, for as long as anyone can remember, the boys had free licence to chase the girls, corral them with ropes, tie them up and eventually douse them with water.