WHEN JOHN McCarthy, of McCarthy’s shoe shop in Ranelagh, Dublin, was a youngster, his father, Con, had a great way of bringing the family on day trips all over the country. The McCarthys have had their shoe shop in the same spot in Ranelagh since 1949 and Con McCarthy used to visit many of the big shoe factories around the country.
These days, such trips would be impossible, because the Irish shoe manufacturing industry, once so vibrant, has been practically wiped out.
Back in 1984, the Guaranteed Irish organisation listed 530 clothing and footwear manufacturers; by last year, a shoemaking company called Whelan’s, in Cootehill, Co Cavan, was the only one on that list still manufacturing. The others had either closed down or have transferred their production outside Ireland. It’s hardly surprising that the people who used to work in shoe-making form such a devoted band of enthusiasts dedicated to a bygone trade – and they love to reminisce.
As late as the 1930s, practically every town throughout Ireland had its boot- and shoemakers hand-making their wares; just in Co Waterford alone, Tramore had three, while Dungarvan had five. But the 1930s represented the apogee of shoemaking, as British companies set up factories here to get around the tariff barriers on imports.
In Dundalk, part of the Army barracks was taken over by Rawson’s, an English firm that set up its factory in the town. It survived until 1967. An even bigger factory with English origins was Hallidays, which was linked with Clarks shoes. Even into the early 1970s, it was employing 1,250 people. Other firms that were synonymous with Dundalk and shoemaking included Blackthorn. No wonder Dundalk prided itself on being the shoemaking “capital” of Ireland.
Not far away, in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, the Stedfast shoe company traded so well that in 1958, it set up its own brass band. The factory closed in 1988, but the band plays on. Even Kells, Co Meath, got its own shoe factory, Kenlia Shoes.
Drogheda, too, benefited in similar fashion. Woodington’s arrived on the Marsh Road there from Bristol in 1932.
Up to the end of the second World War, it made working men’s boots and farm boots, but the arrival of the Wellington boot displaced those lines, so Woodington’s went into ladies’ fashion shoes.
It had agreements with various English brands and its Sno Cats bootees sold well here in Ireland as well as in Canada and the US. It also made Symphony fashion shoes. The other big shoe company in Drogheda was Donaghy’s, set up in 1936 at West Gate.
The most unlikely places got thriving shoe companies, such as Edenderry, Co Offaly.
It too had a great name for ladies’ fashion shoes, but in the end, found itself taken over by a property company, stopped making shoes and became an investment vehicle called European Leisure, which owned various entertainment and night club venues in England.
Some of the big shoe companies were much longer established, like Winstanley’s in Dublin’s Liberties, which continued a tradition in the area of shoemaking that was centuries old. Winstanley’s started in 1875 and lasted for the best part of a century. Some of its workers went on to set up Skipper shoes, which themselves faded out.
In Limerick, O’Callaghan’s had a huge shoemaking factory that dated back to 1830. In more recent times, the Limerick shoe and slipper works were set up in Mulgrave Street, Limerick, in 1933.
In Cork, the Lee Boot Company was a big employer and became even bigger by absorbing Hanover Shoes.
In Carlow, the Governey family started a shoe company in 1903 and used the outline of Carlow Castle as its trademark. It lasted until the early 1970s. In Killarney, Tuf Shoes, whose origins went back to 1881, once made all the boots needed by the Army, the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the ESB. When the company celebrated its centenary, helped by the then minister of state at the department of justice, Dick Spring, the company was still making 8,000 pairs of shoes a week.
A couple of brands went on to garner international reputations, but phased out their shoemaking in Ireland. Padmore Barnes was famous for its shoemaking in Kilkenny and became renowned for its Mocassin Wallabees. For a 30-year period, it was owned by Clarks, the noted English shoemakers.
Dubarry was once an industrial mainstay of Ballinasloe, Co Galway, where it was founded in 1937 as a co-op by the local chamber of commerce.
Still renowned for its shoes and fashions, Dubarry transferred its shoe production to Portugal in 2004 and says it makes very little here now.
In the old days, leather shoes could take up to a month to break in, but these days, people want shoes that are ready to go. We’re now a nation of shoe importers.
It was the same story in Northern Ireland. Down Shoes had a huge factory on the outskirts of Banbridge, Co Down, that managed to last, making Lotus shoes, until 2002. All over Ireland, shoemaking was once such a big industry that the British United Shoe Machinery company had extensive sales operations here. Once, the Irish Shoe and Leather Workers’ Union was a strong entity in the trade union movement.
Just a couple of companies have managed to keep going. Whelan’s footwear was founded in 1931 by Gerard Whelan when he was just 21. During the 1960s, its shoes were very popular with showband performers, the likes of Joe Dolan, Brendan Bowyer and Big Tom. Today, among its various lines, it is noted for its Irish dancing shoes.
In Naas, Co Kildare, Tutty’s handmade shoes, started in 1946, are still going strong and the company is also renowned for its orthopaedic shoes. It has a workforce of 10, a far cry from the time when Ireland had close to 20 shoe factories, as well as ancillary factories, such as the Nugget shoe polish factory in Bluebell, Dublin.
The Anglo-Irish trade agreement in the mid-1960s, and then Ireland’s joining of the EEC in 1973, meant that the industry was very susceptible to imports – and succumb it did.
Shoemaking became part of Ireland’s disappeared manufacturing tradition, like car assembly, but these days, the powerful memories of those who once worked in shoemaking keep its spirit, if not its physical manifestation, alive.