kildea

Miss Crowe and Mr Gildea with their pupils at Kilglass National School, Ahascragh, Co.Galway

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 4 older comments, and then…
• Stuart said:

  Boys one side, girls the other. Also, I wonder was it usual to dress young boys in petticoats? Stuart.

• National Library of Ireland on The Commons said:

  Yes, Stu - lots of our photos have boys in petticoats/apron-type clothes. I'll be adding some from the Congested Districts Board that show the same practice...

• tedesco57 said:

  no shoes! poor urchins

• Stuart said:

  In those days it was usual for children from less well-off families to go about bare-footed during the summer months. It was the ones who still had no shoes during winter that were to be most pitied.

• National Library of Ireland on The Commons said:

  Speaking to someone recently whose 86 year old uncle (born in 1925) had just died. The uncle grew up near Rosslare in Co. Wexford, and had told his nephew that he never forgot that he had been the only boy in his local National School who had shoes going to school. (His parents had a shop and a farm)