Schoolgirls are wearing the trousers

By BBC News Online's Fiona Murray in Belfast

Women have been wearing trousers in the home and workplace for many years.

But now young girls in Northern Ireland are reaching for trousers to wear to secondary school.

There are signs that some schools are relaxing previously strict regulations about trouser-wearing for girls - even in the most traditional institutions.

It is a practical alternative to the dreaded school skirt in a country where wind and rain are the norm.

The trend is catching on in Meanscoil Feirste

St Paul's High School in Bessbrook, County Armagh, permits sixth form girls to wear trousers.

With 1,300 pupils at the school, principal Francis Duffy says it was not a particularly pioneering move, just a way of making pupils feel more comfortable.

"We discussed it among the senior staff when it came to the cold weather and there was no objection to it," he said.

"Schools in England allow girls to wear trousers, so why not Northern Ireland?"

He said if there was a request from younger pupils at the school, staff would consider extending the option to fifth form pupils.

School uniform is often a bone of contention.

At one school in south Wales last month, 70 pupils were banned from lessons for failing to wear the correct uniform.

My class said that if girls should have to wear skirts then boys should have to wear shorts

Aíne Ní Bhroin

In this case the teenagers turned up wearing flared trousers and high-heeled shoes.

But Gary Roberts, principal of west Belfast Irish language school, Meanscoil Feirste, says to avoid any such situation girls were given the trousers' option last September.

"A number of girls came to school in trousers, when they were not part of school uniform. We were still developing the uniform," he said.

"So we decided we would give the girls a choice of wearing school trousers."

Mr Roberts said it had been a very positive move in terms of the relationship between staff and the 340 pupils at the school.

Pupils delighted

"It means that we are not arguing with the pupils over what they should wear. Some of the pupils would be self-conscious, especially with boys in the class."

Mairsile Ní Mhuiri, who was one of those behind moves for trousers to be part of the girls' uniform at Meanscoil Feirste, said pupils were delighted.

"It was really cold standing about, waiting for the bus to school. You would get soaked. Your legs would get drenched by the time you got home," said the 18-year-old.

Fellow pupil Aíne Ní Bhroin said: "It was not fair that girls should have to stand outside and get their knees red from the cold.

"My class said that if girls should have to wear skirts, then boys should have to wear shorts."

The girls of Movilla High School in Newtownards, County Down, were given the option to get rid of their skirts at the start of the school year.

Rule

Headmaster Brian Riley said it had been a very successful move.

"We have a pupils' council here representing every class in every year group and it meets regularly to discuss issues.

"There were a number of things raised last year and one of those was why couldn't the girls wear trousers?

"I gave them a commitment that I would consider it and if we could do it, then we would."

The decision was made after the idea was backed by the school's board of governors.

Last year a teenage schoolgirl in England won the legal right to wear trousers to school - overturning a school dress code that banned them.

Jo Hale, a 14-year-old pupil at Whickham comprehensive school in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, succeeded in a three-year campaign to be allowed to wear trousers.

The girl's parents had claimed the school rule preventing girls from wearing trousers represented a form of sexual discrimination.