Figure 1.--These Irish school boys in Cork are having a snowball fight during 1930. I loved to have snowball fights as a boy, but I can't imagine doing barefoot.

We note many images of Irish children going barefoot during the 19th and early 20th century. The proportion of children seems much higher than in neigboring England, even though clothing styles are virtually identical. We do notice differences in rural areas. Many families in rural Ireland into the early 20th century, could not afford the clothes for their children that were wofrn in the cities. The number of children going barefoot was especially significant in rural areas. The large number of Irish children going barefoot seems largely a question of poverty. This is especially the case of children going barefoot in the Fall and Winter when the weather turned cold. While we have noted many images, we have no actual information on the subject of Irish children going barefoot.