School: Coillte Mághach (roll number 12520)

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1. The Care of the Feet

   

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   As an indication that it was not care of the feet that worried our ancestors of the not far remote past as much as care of the shoes when they were fortunate enough to possess them a story is told among Irish speakers. It says that a woman was going to town carrying her boots on her shoulders as was then the custom until she approached the town. Suddenly she crashed her big toe against a projecting stone on the the road. The pain was so intense that the good woman was forced to exclaim "Wasn't it I had the good luck not to have my boots on or that one would be destroyed."

   Corns or corn cures were then unknown. There may have been blisters and probably there were many of them as the local shoemaker was not always an artist in supplying nice fitting boots and more often the leather he put on them did not suit the fool unaccustomed to such restraints and the long distances that had to be travelled on foot over bad roads or no roads.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. clothing and accessories (~2,403)
         1. shoes (~1,841)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Máirtín Ó Cearbhaill

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Múinteoir