Joy Renewed

Many years ago, when having a little internet search about miniature things I came across this photo

There are a few stories about the shoe, but the common story is that in 1835 (some say 1824) a farm labourer was coming home from work on the Beara Peninsula, and found this little shoe on the path.

There are a few tales about the labourer actually coming across a leprechaun actually repairing the shoe and startled by the labourer the leprechaun dropped the shoe.

The shoe was only three inches long and seven-eighths of an inch at it’s widest part. Far too narrow to be a dolls shoe the conclusion was that it must belong to a leprechaun.

The shoe was given to a local doctor who passed it onto the Sommerville family of Castletownshend. The shoe was given to Harvard University to study and they suggested the shoe, which had tiny eyelets but no laces, was made of mouse skin.

The shoe most likely was made by an apprentice shoemaker, however the belief that it belonged to a leprechaun gathered a lot of belief because it was said the shoe had signs of wear on the sole.

After the shoes location at Harvard it seems the shoe was lost, nothing more was mentioned and the only known photo of the shoe has grown a small following on the internet.

And that is where the story ends.

Some time ago I was visiting a friend and telling her about the shoe, I can’t remember why I brought it up because my friend isn’t a believer in fairy tales and isn’t a collector of tiny things, but when I told her about the shoe and showed her the photo she told me that her brother has the shoe.

I’m not going to tell you who my friend is or who her brother is, but two weeks ago she went to Ireland to visit her brother and I asked her if she would take a photo of the shoe.

So, the story continues. The shoe is in Ireland where it belongs and here is a colour photo of the shoe.