School: Castlepollard Boys (roll number 5513)
- Location:
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: William Coghlan
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0721, Page 117
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- XML “The Care of the Feet”
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- About forty years ago boots were rarely worn here. Some boys and girls never wore boots while they were at school neither winter nor summer, spring nor autumn.
Long ago the roads were different from the roads nowadays. They are nice and smooth and well kept now.
Long ago the roads were rough and were hard to travel on. Long ago peoples feet were harder and the people were hardier. Nowadays people hardly ever go bare footed any time of the year. When working at turf, people go in their bare feet because they say that the peat hardens their feet. They also bathe the feet in the bog water to prevent corns.
Boots are repaired locally but there are not as many show-makers in the district today as were in the days gone by. There are only two shoe-makers in the town and one in the country that I know of. The reason why there are so small a number of shoe-makers is because the factories make the boots and the shoe-maker only repairs them. Long ago boots were made locally but now they are not.
There is only one person in this district who wears clogs. Her name is Mrs Donnelly and she lives in Moortown. Another woman who wears clogs is Ellen Kennedy of Bratty. The clog has a wooden sole. The upper part is made of leather(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Christy Delamere
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Mrs Kennedy
- Relation
- Grandparent
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
