Figure 1.--Very few Irish children wore fashionable clothes. The country was desperately poor and even after the end of British rule and the creation of the Irish Free State (1920s). This did not change. Leaders like De Valera just assumed that Ireland would prosper with the end of British rule. In fact Ireland did not prosper. This photograph was taken in Feothanach, Co. Kerry (1946). Feothanach (formerly anglicised as Feohanagh) is a small townland on the Dingle Peninsula. There are less than 200 inhabitants and this group, may be a school class. Note the thatched roofs. Irish poverty did not matrrially change until the advent of market reforms (capitalism) and Ireland developing a Tiger Economy.

Boys for centuries, even yonger boys, afer breeching basically wore the same clothes as their fathers. At the turn of the 19th century a sea chanhe children's fashions began with dedicated styles for children apparing. This began with boys and the fitrst such garment was the skeleton suit. As the century unfolded, not only did children's fashion appear, but styles for both youngerr and oldren children appear. Ireland is a small country. This meant that the photographic was realtively small. And further limited because Ireland was so poor--in large part because it was giverned as a colony rather than aconstituent part of the Unired Kingdom. We do see some fashionable children's clothing, but not very much. And wghat we do see we believe is mostly among the Anglo-Irish Protestant Accendency. Lityle of this filtered down to the great bulk of the Irish population which was largely rural and poor because they could not afford both fashionable clothing and photographic portraits. As a result, our archive to follow this was is also very limited, especilly in the 19th century.

Flannel Dresses

Irish boys, and not just little boys, were commonly outfitted in dresses until they were 12 or 13 years old. This practice was most common in rural areas, but it was not unknown in towns. Folk lore warned mothers to hide their boys from the 'faries', so they were dressed as girls, usually in long flannel dresses. I have little information on these flannel dresses. Much of the information described below is derived solely from an examination of the available photographic images. Please let me know if you have any additional information or note anything in the photographs.

Fauntleroy Suits

Sailor Suits

Sailor suits were an English creation commonly worn by English boys. Although Irish fashions commonly followed English fashions, we do not yet have information on the popularity of sailor suits in Ireland. We do see a few portraits of Irish boys wearing sailor suits in the 19th century. The suits we see look just like the ones worn in England. The styles and prevalence, however, is difficult to assess because our Itish archive is limited. We do note Irish boys wearing sailor suits. We suspect that the fashion was limited to middle- and upper-class families and was concentrated in the cities. This is suggested by the few images we have archived, but the number of images are too dmall to provide a relible sample. And many rural znd low-income families could not afford to have portrits taken. Ireland was much less urbanized and induyrialized than England and we suspect that sailor suits were less common in Ireland and Britain. And political issues may also be a factor. We suspect that after World war I than the sailor suit may have had an English look to it and thus not very popular in the new Irish Free State. And at the time, the sailor suit was decclining in popularity in Ireland itself.