School: Tulach an Iarainn (roll number 1289)
- Location:
- Tallow, Co. Waterford
- Teacher: Eibhlín Ní Dhubhshláinge
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- XML School: Tulach an Iarainn
- XML Page 298
- XML “Shoemaking”
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- Shoe-making was an important industry in Tallow, but has declined in recent years, owing to the greater use of machinery. The shoemaker worked in a little shop which, as a rule, was part of his kitchen. His outfit was a very simple one, consisting of a wooden bench on which he sat. He usually wore a leather apron. He had a number of awls of different sizes and a variety of wooden lasts. These lasts were really wooden blocks, shaped like a human foot. The shoemaker was able to put pieces on these to ease corns and bunions and to allow for other deformities. He kept balls of hemp and lumps of wax and a small supply of leather.
The importance of the industry can be imagined, when up to twenty families were constantly employed in shoe-making and repairing. In some cases the trade was handed down from father to son for several generations. They have all now disappeared except one family. The best remembered shoe-makers are - Wall, Keeffe, Mack, Hickie, Donovan, Collins, Leahy, McCarthy, Clancy, French, Casey, Lee, Quirke, Ryan, Slattery, Rochford, Martin and the famous Ned Burke, about whom some local rhymester(continues on next page)