Stories and shoes feature in the life of the last cobbler of Clonmel.

I went to meet Martin in his shop, The Cobbler on Mary Street, Clonmel.
He had a cheeky chappie smile and asked, “How long will this take, 5 minutes?”

He sat down with arms folded as if going to a job interview, smiling all the same. And as I sat there, I imagined the thirty years of banter that has danced over and back across his counter.
People come with their shoes and their stories. Around the room are various piles of what must be two hundred pairs of shoes, each with their own tale to tell, but this is Martin’s story:

At seventeen, I was going around schools doing football coaching. There was an ad in the paper, I don’t know if I applied or was it my mother? I have been doing this for thirty-two years, but as you can see, I am very young. The job was for Mack Cleaners in Oakville Shopping Centre.

The owner was Noel McNamara, and his son Morris had the shoe repair side. And twelve months later, the man rang me. He was after giving the job to another fella who had now left to be a priest. Now I did think about going to the priesthood as well (he laughs). I arrived one Monday, sat up at the counter, he asked me a few questions, and said I can start in the morning. So that’s how I got into it.

I hated it until I was able to do it, which took a good while. It was two or maybe three years before I could do stuff properly. I remember practicing on old shoes, and you couldn’t give them out to anybody. Simple things like putting tacks in shoes, I remember thinking… I’ll never get the hang of that. At the start they would all bend or fall out.
Morris started leaving me on my own in the shop after about 9 months. I suppose that’s how you picked up more - you had to do it. I remember people coming in.

WEDDING
I was only there a short time, and the sweat was pouring down. A fella came in one day looking for a pair of soles and heels for a wedding. I never did that before, so they were hocked together. I put them into a bag and somehow pushed them out the door (shoes and the person!) – he didn’t bring them back anyway. So that’s how I got into it,” said the cobbler.
“ And I worked up there in Oakville for ten years. Morris McNamara was an excellent shoemaker. He went to Naas to train in Tutty’s who were big shoe repairmen back then. I think it is still there. Morris trained in Naas, brought it back to Clonmel and I learned it from him.

When the Oakville shop closed, it could not be sublet to me, so I bought all the equipment out of his shop. I opened up my own place and gave another ten years over there (Martin points to the other side of the road on Mary Street). I am here twelve years so that is thirty-two years as a Cobbler.

There is always something different with shoes, even now. Shoes have different materials – cheap shoes, dear shoes and recycled ones (which are hard to stick cause there is a mixture of plastic and rubber in them).
People get their shoes done for different reasons. You might buy a pair of shoes and just because you like them and they are comfortable, you want to keep them.

Other people have good shoes that cost a couple of hundred, so they really want to keep them. And then I have people who come in with stuff that there is no point in getting them done but they like them as well.
They could have bought them in Penney’s for a fiver or tenner. I charge a fiver to stick them or maybe the strap has come out. And there are people who come to me with something that cost ten euro and I charge ten euros or more to fix them.

BREAD AND BUTTER
Different shoes, and everybody is different. Soles and heels are the bread and butter of the Cobbler craft. Soles could be rubber, PVC or leather.
Heels are plastic, PVC or leather. Some might want a light rubber sole over leather, there’s a lot of different options. Always different types of shoes coming in.

Polish couple making their mark as tattoo artists in Clonmel

Artisans of Clonmel

Though the shoes are different, the tools stay the same. I have my machines since I came down from Oakville over thirty years ago. The main machine has two belts – one for rough work and the other is a finisher with brushes. The belt pares off the shoes and I leave it running all day.
There is a wicked noise off it, but I don’t hear it anymore. I cut keys as well. There are a hundred different kinds of keys. And mend handbags – stitching and patching them.

I had ten people in today and the first person… will I stick a strap (done in three or four minutes), will I stick a shoe, will I stitch a strap on a bag? These are all five-to-ten-minute jobs.
I got them all to come back. Before I wouldn’t have time to do them, they would have to come back the next day but now, I have time. So how many would I do in a day – if there were soles and heels?... maybe twenty. I am asked to stretch shoes every day of the week.

DOG TROUBLE
I get bigger jobs along with the smaller jobs - cutting a key or mending a handbag. But people want to come in and talk and this takes time, especially when you are busy.
I get shoes in twice a week that the dog ate, and I would say ‘did you put down the dog?’ and they’d be looking at me. I got a pair of hiking boots that a lady from Kilkenny brought in last week - the dog had eaten away at back one of the boots.
I look at them every day and wonder what I am going to do with that. It might not turn out the way I want, I might not be able to fix them, but I do like a challenge.

I am way quieter now than I would have been ten years ago. So many of my clients are older people, coming to me for years and many others have died. I don’t get as many young people. Clonmel people are the best people in Ireland, and I get good people coming in. Clients come from everywhere – Carrick, Killenaule, Fethard, and Ardfinnan but Clonmel has been good to me.

RISING COSTS
Not only is it quieter now, but the materials are dearer to buy. Thirty years ago, you would nearly buy what was in the van for five hundred pounds.
Now a box of stuff is three or four hundred, materials – like leather and everything is gone up. I put a euro or two onto the price, but you can’t go mad.

Even five years ago, you paid five euros for men’s leather soles, it is ten euros now, a massive difference. The type of work I do has also changed.
People are not going out as much since Covid. I used to get people in looking for new heels – up to thirty pairs of stilettos a week, now it is ten. I had a fella coming in looking for a leather sole and a leather heel.

It might take an hour easily – with the glue setting on them and someone is coming in and you are not getting the time. The job takes longer, and I don’t make as much so it is harder to keep the doors open. Business has halved in the last five years, even before Covid.

CRAFT
If things keep going like that, the craft of the Cobbler won’t come back. The last recession might have helped a little but this time, everything is too expensive.
People used to fix their own shoes at home. On this shelf, here is the ‘last’ that I painted black myself (a three-legged iron structure). Each of the legs is a different shape to fit a shoe or boot. Over time, the Cobbler craft moved from the home into the shops in towns but even they are disappearing one by one. Today, the only other Cobblers in Tipperary are in Nenagh and Roscrea.
ONLY ONE LEFT
When I started in Clonmel there were five or six shoemakers. Now I am the only one left: I am the last cobbler of Clonmel.

Two books, Artisans of Clonmel and Artisans of Cashel, were published before Christmas.
They were launched as part of Clonmel Applefest and the Cashel Arts Festival. They both carry the stories of craftspeople in the community.
Over the coming months The Nationalist will carry stories from both books.
The article for this week was written by Marie Walsh
Marie Walsh is a mother, writer, singer-songwriter, teacher and self-confessed optimist! She lives in Tipperary with her two amazing children - Holly and Tom. She is a Lecturer based on the Clonmel Campus of the Technological University of the Shannon. Marie believes light always wins and knows anything is possible.