A jingle (sometimes spelled gingle) was a kind of covered carriage formerly used in the city of Cork, Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[1][2] It was described as "entirely peculiar to Cork" in 1919.[3][4]
In 1837 there were 300 jingles running from Cork City to Passage West.[5][6] The "gingle stand" was located next to an equestrian statue of King George II on Grand Parade, Cork.[7]
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, 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 [is placed] at an angle of about 30° with the ground."[8]
In 2018, David Toms wrote an academic paper on Cork hackney drivers; he said that "[jinglemen] were for the most part a precarious working class who were policed by the Corporation, the Hackney Carriage Committee and the by-law governing their livelihoods. As such, the bye-law and the apparatus that implemented it was a form of liberal governmentality and social control over a portion of Cork’s working class."[9]