Sandals were worn by Irish school boys, but we 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.

Chronolgy

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.

Age

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.

Style

There were two basic styles of school sandals.

T-strap

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.

Double-strap

The double strap style style was not commonly worn in Ireland.

Color

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.

Popularity

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.

Clothing

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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Created: June 5, 1998
Last updated: 5:40 AM 2/14/2020