The young people long ago were not accustomed to wear shoes the same as the young people nowadays. The first pair of shoes they wore were when they were Confirmed and they were generally fourteen or fifteen years of age then. The boots then worn were made by local shoemakers. No boots were worn by the young people then except there was frost or snow there. The women used never wear shoes except in winter time because they were always inside.
There was a man in Kildysart named Tom Connors popularly known as "Tom the fairy" who never wore a shoe. There was a beggar woman Máirín Guare who lived near Knock and who never wore a shoe. She was a familar figure in the district and when she visited the houses at the beginning of the New Year she would enter with the salutation "A Croppy" New Year to ye." It is the custom for young people to leave off their shoes in late Spring or early Summer and go barefoot until September.
People are in the habit of washing their feet every night before going to bed. There is a superstition regarding "feet water" - if left inside it will invite trouble from the "good people" or the fairies who would perhaps carry off the cream or the butter. It is the custom to throw out the feet water, it would