408 THE IRISH LEATHER AND BOOT-MAKING INDUSTRY. 



THE IRISH LEATHER AND BOOT-MAKING 



INDUSTRY. 



Until about thirty years ago the tanning industry in Ireland was in a 

 flourishing condition, and despite the startling decrease in population 

 which followed the famine, the making of leather was carried on 

 all over the country under sound financial conditions and with a large 

 measure of prosperity. Up to about 1870 most of the leather required for 

 use in Ireland, including that used for the " uppers " and soles of boots and 

 that required for harness making was produced in this country. The heavy 

 " sole leather " made in Ireland, chiefly, from South American hides, was of 

 excellent quality and particularly suited to the requirements of an agricul- 

 tural population. A lighter class of sole leather was manufactured out of 

 Irish hides and was used principally for female wear. For upper leather 

 the demand was chiefly for a strong water-resisting article called " brogue " 

 leather. Calf skins were also tanned, and these, with sole and harness 

 leather, were manufactured in almost every part of Ireland ; while Dublin, 

 Cork, and Limerick could boast of quite a number of tanneries, each 

 working to the full extent of its capacity. Indeed many small towns had 

 tanneries of their own. Such imports as there were at this time were 

 confined for the most part to the lighter classes of upper leather, very little 

 of other kinds of leather coming from abroad. 



The chief centres of production were Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, which 

 turned out large supplies of the kinds above mentioned. Cork was par- 

 ticularly noted for the production of one class, of which the southern city 

 made a specialty. This was " satin-calf " which is still produced there, 

 though in limited quantities as compared with its former output. Bandon 

 was known as the chief centre for the manufacture of " brogue leather," 

 and in that town five and twenty years ago, there were four tanneries, 

 working full time and all doing remarkably well. Their leathers were 

 known well and found a ready market. Dunmanway, in the same county, 

 had a thriving tannery. Clonmel in the heart of Tipperary had three. 

 Further east, Wexford and New Ross turned out excellent leather. So 

 did Kilkenny on even a larger scale. Ballytore, in the County Kildare, 

 which is still working, was noted for its tanned goods, and these may be 

 taken as fair samples of the widespread distribution of this once important 

 industry. Drogheda also had at least one tannery, and the same might be 

 said of numerous other towns in which this industry gave employment 

 to large numbers. In Limerick there were three tanneries which did a 

 brisk trade in sole, harness, and upper leathers. Two of these are still in 

 existence and in full working order. 



The tanneries in Ulster, situated at Belfast, Lisburn, DoMmpatrick, 

 Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Newry, and Richhill, County Armagh, were work- 

 ing in the eighties. A few of them, as will be seen, survive at the present 



