Figure 2.--These boys at a rural Irish school were still wearing 'dresses in this photograph taken in 1915.
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Figure 2.--These boys at a rural Irish school were still wearing 'dresses in this photograph taken in 1915. |
HBC currently have very little information on Irish school uniforms. Boys in rural areas that went to school were often outfitted in dresses. Boys in urban areas were more likely to dress like English boys. Affluent Irish boys appear to have worn basically the same styles as British boys. English-style styles appear to have become increasingly common in the 20th century, especially after World War I. This is an interestingly development because this was just the time when the Irish Free State was form and Ireland broke from the British. HBC still has limited information on Irish schoolwear, but Irish readers have supplied some information which has helped to sketch out some basic patterns.
I have virtually no information on clothes worn at Irish schools in the 19th Century. England was one of the last major western European countries to establish free public education. Many of the wealthy elite was concerned that education would cause the poor to become disasisfied with the existing social order. Of course such cocerns were even stronger in Ireland where English landlords had been killed by disgruntled tennants. Thus even less attention was given to public education in Ireland. School clothes were probably quite different at state and private schools.
State schools: I do not believe that Irish boys wore uniforms at state schools. Some photographs showing the boys wearing their normal everyday clothes. Boys in rural areas still often one-piece dressess to school. These dresses, often referred to as petticoats, were often worn under boyish looking jackets. This practice did not finally disappear until after World War I (1914-18) in the 20th Century.
Private schools: Private preparatory and secondary schools were established in Ireland. Most closely followed English patterns and adopted English school uniforms.
HBC has very little information on Irish schoolwear in the early 20th century. We believe that some boys at schools in rural areas wore simple dresses, but we do not know how wide-spread this was. Boys in urban areas were more likely to dress like English school boys. Private schools generally followed English school fashions. The Irish Free State came into being in 1922, following the signing of a Treaty with England in December 1921. In 1926 the School Attendance Act made school attendance compulsory on all school days for children between the ages of six and fourteen. The primary school programme consisted of attendance for five or six hours, five days a week for a minimum of 190 days a year. The subjects studied included, Irish, English, Arithmetic, History, Geography and Music. Girls also received instruction in needlework. In the late 1920s, the Department of Education had introduced the Primary School Certificate examination. This examination was voluntary until 1943 when, despite strong opposition, it became compulsory for all children who had reached sixth class.
Figure 3.--Many of the junior boys at this Irish school wore short pants and kneesocks with their blazers. Note that beyond the front row the boys are wearing long pants. The boys in shorts were all put in the front row. |
Irish school uniforms began to change about the same time that they did in England. One source indicated that most Irish boys wore caps, short pants, and knee socks to school in the 1950s until they were about 13 years old. Another source confirms this, indicating, "When I was a boy back in Ireland of the 1950's we wore grey worsted shorts to school until we were about 12 years old." Even older boys sometimes wore short pants to school. This was usually not because the school required it, but rather the opinion of the parents as to when their son was ready for long trousers. Thus at many schools there were some younger boys in longs and some older boys in short pants.
An Irish contributor was was in school in the 1960's reports that most boys wore short trousers to school up to the age of 13 or so. Privileged boys in prep schools wore
short pants as part of a school uniform incorporating a blazer and knee socks with coloured garters. State school boys wore pullovers or "jumpers" with their shorts. Families were often large so a boy could expect to wear the same shorts for many years and to then hand
them down to his younger brothers. This meant that the pants were often overtight and tended to ride up. He remembers the chilly Irish mornings with "lots of us huddled together, our bare knees joined to keep warm and everyone sprouting goose-pimples."
By the early 70's many 14 year old boys still wore short pants to senior school. This had died out completely by the mid 70's. The school photograph albums record the changes to the year. By the 1970s it was becoming less common for older boys to wear short pants school uniforms or wear caps. Few other changes, however, occurred in school uniforms. HBC observed only a few Irish boys wearing school shorts in the 1980s, during an admitedly brief visit. This appeared to be the general pattern in state schools. Many private schools, however, continued to have traditional uniforms. One Irish observer in the 1990s, however, reports that it is still normal practise for junior school boys at private schools to wear short pants and coloured blazers up to the age of 11 or 12. In some schools, especially city schools, only younger boys wear shorts--up to about 9 in the cities.
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