Figure 1.-- We note a a CDV portrait of avery very young family although mother does not look that young. She may well be the grandmother. There are three childrem who look to be an infant up to perhaps 5 years old. The two older boys are wearing sailor suits complele with caps. The older boy has a French pom and a HMS Monarch tally. Notice the frills on his knee pants. The image is undated, but was probably taken in the 1870s, we think the early-70s. The studio was Willey in Louth. This is a town near Dudark close to the border with Ulster.

We have a very limited chronology of Irish sailor suits. So far the earlest sailor suits we have found look to be from the 1870s. We suspect sailor suits appeared earlier, but we do not yet have examples from the 1860s. We note a very young family although mother does not look that young. There are three childrem who look to be an infant up to perhaps 5 years old. The two older boys are wearing sailor suits complele with caps. (figure 1) The example on the previos page looks to date to about 1890. We suspect that after World War I that the sailor suit may have had an English look to it in the public mind. It thus may not have been very popular in the new Irish Free State. And at the time, the sailor suit was declining in popularity in Ireland itself.