Figure 1.-- Here we see two boys, probably brothers with their Irish Mails. Notice the foogles. Race car drivers at the time wore goggles. The younger boy wears a play pinafore. The older boy a sailor suit. The snapshot is not dated, but we would guess was take in the mid- or late 1920s. Notice the wide cobble-stone street. nd even though it is the 1920s, there is not car insight, only a horse-drawn cart.

Most of our information on Irish mails comes from America. We also see some in Germany. We know that they were popular with American children in the early-20th century. And the same seems to be the case for Germany. We are less sure about the rest of Europe. We note indications that they were used in Emgland and Ireland. One might think that the Irish mails were popular in Ireland, but this name seems to come from America and may reflect the large number of Irish immigrants employed by the raulroads. It is on the railroads that the Irish mails evolved, being used for track inspection and other purposes. We are not sure, however, that there were children's toys in those countries or how popular they were. We have found few photographs outside of America and Germany. We do note one undentified German boy riding an Irish mail. This is one of the relatively few European boys wehave found riding one. These fonds may simply represent are very large American and German archives. They may have been popular in othervcountries, but our limited archives just do not pick them up.

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Created: 8:56 PM 2/8/2017
Last updated: 8:56 PM 2/8/2017