School: Tobar Ruadh

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1. Foot Protection

   

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   Everybody at the present day wear either boots or shoes but this was not the case long ago as it was only the very wealthy people who wore shoes that time and those people itself were very careful of thin shoes. If they were going across the bog from my place to Mass to Kilconly they would take off their shoes and carry them until they be near the church for fear they would soil them.
   The poor people would get the skin of some animal and dry it. Then they would cut it into the shape of a shoe and tie it round their food with a string. Some more people would get a woollen sock and cut the toe off it and put their foot in it just to prevent sharp stones from cutting them. Those socks when shaped were called treehe.
   There were a number of shoemakers round here for making and repairing shoes. The nearest shoemakers to my house were the Naughtons. They were two brothers and they lived in the same house together in New Village, Caherlistrane, Tuam. They were two very good shoemakers so there were people coming a long distance to them for shoes. As well as making shoes they would make clogs with wooden soles and iron tips all round the sole to prevent it from wearing. Nobody round here gets their shoes made by those shoemakers now.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Comber

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Cloonbar, Co. Galway

   Informant

   Thomas Moran

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60