Wretched Old Shoes

Two original items from Portumna workhouse, one is a child's shoe & the other a man's boot.

At the Irish Workhouse Museum we are delighted to have several specimens of pauper shoes. However shoes were viewed as a troublesome topic by workhouse management. Some workhouses ordered boot parts and had the paupers assemble them. Others bought them in ready made. Whomever supplied the shoes, it is clear that covering the feet of the poor was not a priority. In Co. Galway alone, six of the ten workhouses were in dispute with the Poor Law Commissioners in England over shoe and stocking provision. The result was newspaper descriptions like the one below:

stockingless and his feet were scarcely protected by wretched old shoes (The Nation-Saturday July 30, 1864)

The old pauper described in this article was alleged to be suffering from exposure due to his treatment at Portumna workhouse. A mere six months later, Rev. P. Donalan R.C.C. alleged two women named Kelly and Grimes, died deaths in Portumna Workhouse, 'caused or accelerated by exposure to cold.' (Nenagh Guardian, Saturday January 21, 1865). 

Portumna was not alone in its attitude. If we look at Parlimentary Returns regarding shoes from 1868, we see that many workhouses had a system where certain paupers were refused any kind of covering for their feet. This offical comment is about Ballinasloe.

 Borrisokane and Galway receive similar comments. Loughrea had an additional problem regarding clogs.

Portumna was slow to implement changes recommended by the Poor Law Commissioners but explained its delays with a proposal for fitting cocoa-matting in the school room. This in theory meant that children wouldn't need to wear shoes in the school room. It is clear from official correspondance that the Commissioners felt Portumna workhouse was just stalling. The matter is eventually resolved as we can see from the presence of children's shoes found on site but also from the following newspaper extracts.

The soles of the shoes show the distinctive rows of nails which show the boots are hand-made.

Shoe Suppliers

After 1900, Portumna appears to improve its track record for providing shoes. In 1910 Mr P & J Hynes get the contract for supplying men’s, women's and girl's boots. The price was 7s 2d per pair of men’s boots, 5s 8d a pair for women’s boots, and girl’s boots at 4s 4d a pair. (Connacht Tribune, Saturday, October 01 1910 & Saturday, November 05, 1910)

There seems to be some debate about the cost of supplying boots because in 1912 there is discussion of appointing a shoemaker at 15s per week, without a pension. The Master states that the class of boots currently in use at the workhouse are causing a great deal of loss, as they cut the stockings. There is no mention of what the boots are doing to the paupers' feet! (Connacht Tribune June 8, 1912)

Criminality

Apart from money saving tactics, there were abiding fears about paupers misusing what the workhouse gave them. In 1911 a story ran about tramps, and their unscrupulous antics. One tramp was accused of stealing 8 stone of potatoes from a single village, which he later sold. There are comments saying that if the workhouse gave the tramps better boots, they’d be able to travel further away, and thus be less of a nuisance. Workhouses reply that the tramps would not travel far before they sold the boots. (Connacht Tribune, April 1, 1911) 

As a last note, spare a thought for the poor schoolmistress of Portumna workhouse in 1910. An inmate named Campbell took off his boots so he could climb into her room with a length of iron bar. It was alleged that his intentions were not of attack, but simply of burgalary. Presumably his boots were too cumbersome or too noisy to keep on for the alleged attack. Atleast he had boots to take off. (Irish Independent, Friday, August 05, 1910)

Elizabeth Carter