Irish History - Pockets

[bainbrig]

Was there a law in Ireland in the 1940s concerning the number of pockets you could have?

BillB

[fiction-factory]

What makes you think there might have been, Bainbrig?

[Old_Geezer]

Never heard of one. Maybe it's about pocket knives, or something else related to pockets ?

[bainbrig]

Someone sent me a torn out page from the Derry Sentinel, July 1944.

Tantalisingly, a bit was torn off, meaning all that is left is:

There were four summonses, (names....) for producing a pair of .... with more than two pockets as.... than twenty inches at the bot.... waistcoat with more than two.... and a jacket with more than.... pockets... and Henry McNulty ... was summoned for pr... two jackets with more than.... pockets.

The Justice: "That is no excuse.... I would like the public to under... that the law in this matter ... strictly enforced by me.

And that's about all. My deduction is that during wartime 'austerity' measures in the Republic, there were some daft rules about how clothes could be produced.

BB

[sanmac]

Just a wild guess, but perhaps it was to do with cutting down on smuggling of food and other items in the black-market during the strict rationing at the time.

[fiction-factory]

Thanks for coming back to us, BB. Yes, odd a sit soundsm it looks as if there must have been something.

[Calibax]

Due to clothing allowance to restrict amount of material used.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-clothes-rationing-affected-fashion-in-the-second-world-war

Single-breasted suits replaced double-breasted. Lapels had to be within a certain size. The number of pockets was restricted and trouser turn-ups were abolished.

[mushroom25]

just a point Mr B - the Derry Sentinel's publication area is North-West Northern Ireland rather than the republic......

[bainbrig]

a) North West Ireland includes Donegal (where the case reported was held).

b) Thanks Calibax - that's just what it must have been. Curious though that there WERE prosecutions under the law, which many at the time must have seen as doolally.

BB