Figure 1.--A few of the boys at this school wear school sandals.
Sandals were worn by Irish school boys, but I do not think that school sandals were as commonly worn as in
England, although I have no information confirming that. Boys generally
wore leather shoes, until the 1980s, children were not encouraged to
wear sneakers.
|
Figure 1.--A few of the boys at this school wear school sandals. |
Sandals probably appeared in Ireland about the same time as in England.
Sandals first appear in the 1910s and become much more common in the 1920s.
They were worn through the 1960s, but begin to become less common in the
1970s.
The age of the boys wearing sandals has varied. Boys in the 1930s and 40s might be as old as
12 or 13 years wearing sandals. In some cases even older. The age had declined by
the 1970s and 80s to younger boys up to about 10 or 11 years of age.
There were two basic styles of school sandals.
The T-strap style was the most commonly worn. There were many different
variations of this style. Some had perferations for ventilation. Most
had oerferations evenly
distributed. Other had the perferations in patterns. Some shoes had slits
rather than perferations.
Figure 2.--These school sandals have perfeorations for ventilation. They are the style with relatively narrow straps. |
The width of the staps on the sandals also varies. The traditional
school sandal has rather narrow staps. Beginning in the 1970s a new
style appeared with a much expanded center strap, giving the school
sandal the look of a shoe.
The double strap style style was not commonly worn in Ireland.
Most school sandals were brown although shades varried. Most were
brown shade like brown shoes. Sandals came in a greater variety of brown
shades than shoes. Some had a redish tinge to them. Others were a
light brown color.
I am not sure how popular sandals were with Irish school boys.
Figure 3.--The school sandals worn by this boy have slits for ventilation rather than perferations. |
I believe that school sandals in Ireland were primarily worn
with short pants. Relatively few boys wore them once they began
wearing long pants. Tnis is one reason why school sandals are no
longer as commonly worn in Ireland.
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