Well-known Galway cobbler hangs up his boots after 40 years!

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – After almost four decades working as a cobbler on Sea Road, James Heffernan is ready to hang up his boots!

The Prospect Hill native, aged 72, is taking a step back from James Heffernan Shoe Repair Shop, the business he established ‘back the West’ over 38 years ago.

Eddie, his son, has learned from the best, and plans to keep alive the age-old craft of cobbling once James retires.

And he has big boots to fill!

“He was just unbelievable at fixing machines, and he could bang out 100 pairs (of shoes) a day. If you look at his hands, three of his fingers shift a little bit to the right because of the machine. He’s just an animal – he’s like ten men,” Eddie said of his dad.

Being an entrepreneur in 1980s Galway was not easy, but James had another major physical obstacle to overcome – deafness from birth.

He successfully navigated a customer-facing business in a world of silence, in a difficult trade. He was educated up to the age of 16 at St Joseph’s School for the Deaf in Cabra, Dublin.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of James’, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.