The Shoemaker Shop

In this short booklet I will be introducing the reader to a small insight
into the workings of the local shoemaker/cobbler or lesser known as
Griosaí Gaedheal . The trade was nearing its end, thankfully now
shoemaker skills are making a comeback.

My favourite childhood book was The Elves and the Shoemaker. It was
one of many stories collected by The Brothers Grimm. The
illustrations as a child transported you to the shoemakers shop.
Magic was woven between the shoemaker and the Elves and with
some little research this too is intertwined into our own Irish oral heritage.

The shoemaker is long linked here in Ireland with the fairies and this
can be clearly seen within the Duchas Schools Collection of 1938.
Students from ages ten to twelve collected local folklore stories resulting
thankfully that we have some brilliant written heritage about our
local shoemaker.

Shoemakers were in almost every town and village across the
country, making new shoes for the wealthy, repairing shoes for the
poor all the while bringing some magic alongside their skilled work
with tales of the fairies.

I have attached a small document piece on information I have found locally and through The Duchas Schools Collection , school children recorded the old irish names for the different parts of leather on the shoe. There are also some local names of shoemakers/cobblers that were in the district of Skehana Galway.

With thanks to Cormac Bonner we have permission to use his beautiful family image of a traditional shoe shop in 1905. I got the photo tidied and coloured and it showed up the beautiful handmade shoes inside the little square window of the shop that was located in Convoy County Donegal.