I grew up in the northwest of Dublin in a relatively poor area. We didn't have uniforms but had to wear corduroy shorts and jumpers.

Dress Clothes

I made my First Communion a 7. I wore white shorts and little white ankle socks with a black blazer. Some boys were in short trouser suits No boy wore longs then. The shoes were jet black shiny brogues. I had to wear the white shorts to mass every Sunday for a year afterwards. I hated them.

For my confirmation like all the other boys I wore a grey short trouser suit which I had to wear every sunday for the next 2 years.

The short trouser suit was very neat like a mans suit with short pants and I wore a red tie or a little dickie bow on sundays!

Play Clothes

For play we alll wore terylene shorts or cotton shorts with an elastiswaist band. We always wore sandals with little leather eyelets in the summer. I didnt mind sandals in the summer but I hated them in the winter. Mostly I was let wear black or brown brogues with long socks. These were accompanied by coloured very short short pants.

Buying Shorts

My mother used to take me to a shop called Clearys in Dublin to buy my shorts and a nice man used to becalled out to help fit the "older" boy as I was at 13. I remember well going there every year and hating it after.

School

By the age of 13 or so as all the other boys in my class were in longs, or so it seemed to me at the time. Photos show many of my friends still in shorts. I used to ask my friends if they liked wearing shorts and we all wanted longs. I used to beg my mother to buy me long pants but even at 13 she said I was too young for long trousers and my Dad didn't approve of seeing "little men" prancing about in long trousers, as he called those fortunate boys! No boy in my class was in long pants at 11. By 12 two or three boys had longs but the teachers didnt like it. By 13 as I say, it seemed to me as though I was one of the few boys still in shorts but photos of the time show that over half my class were still = in shortpants.

There wasnt a uniform at my primary school. It was too poor. Boys wore shorts and jackets or jumpers or v-neck sweaters with ties. Most of us wore cord shorts. I hated them as they seemed so stiff. You could wear any colour but boys in bright colours were jeered a lot.

At school, besides my black , grey or blue shorts, I wore long socks with a variety of coloured garters which always left indented red marks on my legs and then itched. This meant that I used to get told off for having my socks shoved down my bare legs. The socks were very wolly in winter with huge turnovers like you see in the William book illustrations by Henry.

By 13, boys started wearing grey longs. Never jeans which were banned in = most schools. In secondary school, many boys were kept in shortpants = until they were 14 or 15. I had to wear shorts at home up to that age. Boys wore a variety of shorts. The connonest were cords and grey = terylene especially made boys short trousers. There were racks of them = in all big stores for boys up to 16 or even for 17 year olds in some = cases then. In the summer boys wore cotton shorts too, These were often = very light and short. I liked those as they were easier to manage.

Styles

My shorts varied over the years. By the time I was 11 they were almost down to my knees, but over the next 3 years they shortened considerably and my last pair were only down to the upper third of my thighs.

Shoes

Shoes were brogues in the winter and sandals in the summer, sometimes with no socks at all.

School Uniform

As a boy at school in Ireland in the 60's I can confidently report 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 often didn't fit well. They were often overtight and tended to ride up on the boy. I can remember chilly Irish mornings with lots of us huddled together, our bare knees joined to keep warm and everyone sprouting goose-pimples.

An added misery was the tendency of some teachers to whack a boy across the backs of his bare legs with a cane for wrong doing. Much of the fashion which kept Irish boys in short pants was fuelled by the teacher/managers' insistence that boys be kept in short trousers and boys long stockings as a reminder of their subservience and in the knowledge that a boy in shorts could always be told what to do. Some fathers supported this view although it was largely a fashion trend.

In 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.

It is still normal practise for junior school boys to wear short pants and coloured blazers up to the age of 11 or 12 in some schools but up to about 9 in the cities. (as opposed to Australia of course where boys wear shorts throughout their school days thanks to the good weather).

Scouts

I forgot to tell you that I was in the Boy Scouts in Dublin. We wore a full scouts uniform with very short deep blue corduroy pants. The socks were knee height and had green garters. In the summer we wore sandals with them.

Will