A jingle (sometimes spelled gingle) was a kind of covered

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

formerly used in the city of

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was described as "entirely peculiar to Cork" in 1919. In 1837 there were 300 jingles running from

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...

Passage West Passage West (locally known as "Passage"; ) is a port town in County Cork, Ireland, situated on the west bank of Cork Harbour, some 10 km south-east of Cork city. The town has many services, amenities and social outlets. Passage West was ...

. The "gingle stand" was located next to an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

of King George II on

Grand Parade, Cork Grand Parade is one of the main streets of Cork city, Ireland. It runs from South Mall in the south to St. Patrick's Street/Daunt Square in the north, with intersections with Oliver Plunkett Street, Tuckey Street, Washington Street, Augustine ...

. In 1873, one writer described them: "The jingle is a covered vis-a-vis, in which you ride with your side in the direction of your onward motion. Over this inside car is reared a flat-topped square tent of black

tarpaulin A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforced ...

, opening by movable curtains at the rear where you enter the car. The shafts are pitched high on the horse's back ��the body of the vehicle

s placed S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

at an angle of about 30° with the ground." In 2018, David Toms wrote an academic paper on Cork hackney drivers; he said that " inglemenwere for the most part a precarious

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

who were policed by the

Corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

, the Hackney Carriage Committee and the

by-law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

governing their livelihoods. As such, the bye-law and the apparatus that implemented it was a form of liberal

governmentality Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time. Governmenta ...

and social control over a portion of Cork’s working class."

References

Carriages Transport in Cork (city) History of Cork (city) {{vehicle-stub