School: Castlepollard Boys (roll number 5513)
- Location:
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: William Coghlan
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0721, Page 115
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- About forty years ago many more people went bare-foot than do at the present day. Some people never wear shoes winter or summer. Most of the boys and girls of about fifty years ago never wore boots until they began to work at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Nowadays no children go bare-foot all the year round in this town. Few of them go bare-foot in summer except in the country where children go without shoes in the summer and autumn months. We hardly ever see adults go in their bare-feet nowadays.
There is one person in the area who repairs boots. Boot repairing is usually a traditional trade.
We find the shoe-maker's father and also his grandfather have been in the same trade also before him. There were many more shoe-makers in this long than there are now. At that time boots were made locally and by hand. At present boots are made in factories and shoe-makers get very little to do except repairs. The population of the district has decreased greatly during the past forty years and as a result of it there is not any of as many shoe-makers as their was long ago.
Clogs are very seldom worn now. Sometimes we see an odd person with them on. Some years ago(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Joseph Kelly
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- James Murray
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
