For Your Guidance

For your Guidance was a small book on etiquette, produced for Mercy secondary schools and was given to students between the years of 1955 and 1968.

It was full of advice, not only within school – how to address the sisters, to never run, to offer to carry sister’s books, to hold the door open for sisters - but outside the school too.

Some of the best advice offered relates to outside the school, such as:

~ Do not go to milk bars in school uniform

~ Do not lay down on the ground in the street

~ If a man passes you on the street, he must pass to the right of you. If he tips his hat you may only nod in assent if he is known to you.

~ If you are invited to visit at a friend’s house, you must not play their piano until you are invited to by the lady of the house.