From Hide to Heel
2025-2027
Events
Hidden stories: Irish Women's working lives in town and country from the 1930s
Saturday 11 April 2026, 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
Speaker: Professor Mary E. Daly, Emeritus Professor of History at University College Dublin (UCD)
Form, Function, and Footwear: State Ambition and the Industrial Modernism of Kilkenny
Saturday 25 April, 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm, followed by a factory tour
Speaker: Emma Gilleece, Architectural Historian
From Hide to Heal traces a journey from raw animal hide to finished footwear, the project brings together local histories of farming, tanning, and shoemaking, connecting Kilkenny City, County and region through a collaborative and participatory artistic process. The project is rooted in two historically linked sites in Kilkenny city: Padmore & Barnes, ‘The Boot Factory’ on Wolfe Tone Street and the former neighbouring Cattle Mart on Barrack Street. Together, these sites anchor a shared story of labour, industrial production, and skilled handcraft, revealing how local lives were shaped by global systems of trade, materials, and movement.
Inviting audiences to reflect on the relationship between past and present, labour and land, people and place. The project aims to deepen public understanding of Kilkenny’s living heritage while highlighting the importance of safeguarding social history, cultural and environmental knowledge.