Peacocke, Hugh
November 27, 2012Sports clubs and community groups of Kilcullen turned out in force recently to mourn, with his family and many friends, the death of Hugh Peacocke. Hugh, who retired just four years ago after spending 65 years as a cobbler and shoemaker, had a particularly strong background in boxing and GAA, and was also a noted bridge player who had represented Ireland. At the Requiem Mass in Kilcullen Parish Church, many moments in Hugh's life were recalled.
Mostly subsequent to his arrival in Kilcullen with his young wife Shelia to where he moved in the 1950s, buying a shop for a shoe repair business for £75. Previously he had learned his trade with the National Slipper Company in Naas and Dun Laoghaire and Tutty's of Naas and, where he had reached the level of foreman by the time he was 18. Hugh was kept busy in shoe repairs, but he had been trained in Tutty's as a maker of shoes and he wanted to do more of that. "I brought in somebody I had worked with in Tutty's and gave him the repair work," he recalled at the time of his retirement.
"That left me able to do more making". His shoe and boot making expertise quickly became famous not just in Kilcullen, but across the country and beyond. His customers included the late Charles Haughey, then Taoiseach, who famously sent a state car to collect the shoemaker when Hugh said he hadn't time to drive to Dublin to take the measure of the politician. There was also a bunch of aristocrat customers who included the Lords Waterford, Hemphill and Killanin. Very many locals also appreciated Hugh's leather work of those days and it is quite probable that many of his shoes and boots are still in use today. Over his life, Hugh had no less than five hip replacements and two shoulder joint operations, the necessity for which he blamed respectively on long distance cycling in his youth and boxing.
Somewhat late in life he took up golf and in typical fashion he set out to become a most competitive player. When he had to take a break after a hip operation, he came back to his former proficiency in a space of time that dumbfounded his regular opponents. He was equally competitive when playing bridge and though very generous with his time and knowledge in showing newcomers how to play, he had little patience with partners and competitors who didn't perform well when in actual competition. For decades the window of the shoemaker's shop o Kilcullen's Main Street was never passed by anyone without a wave, or a stop in for a quick conversation, which was always forthright on Hugh's part. There's the story that someone once brought in an old pair of shoes and asked him if there was something could be done with them? "There is" Hugh answered, then went to the door and threw them under the wheels of a passing lorry. "That's what I can do," he grunted as he returned to the old battered last where he had piled a trade that is still the province of individuals. Hugh will be missed for a long time by those whose footwear he made, or kept in good condition in an otherwise throwaway era. He will be remembered by a certain Monica Roberts from San Diego, who took the picture with this piece when she visited the shop some years ago and providentially sent it to Kilcullen this last summer.
He has been missed for some time by those who used to stop for a few moments rather then pass the shop, though as long as his son Ger is working there in the window, Hugh will never be dead, as they say. But most of all he is missed by his wife Shelia, sons Hugh and Ger, and daughters Catherine, Christine and Anne. And his twin brother Will who still lives in their native Naas. May he rest in peace, and keep the soles of the souls in Heaven in proper nick. Watch out though, for any old celestial footwear he might throw past Gabriel out through the gates…or even at the Archangel of that man has fluffed a bid at bridge.
(Text courtesy of Kildare Nationalist 27/11/12) Tweet
