Making an Irish Free State City – The rise of the Lee Boot Factory

Insightful write ups on Cork’s local economy are provided in the Cork Examiner across the winter of 1925 and into early spring 1926. The growth of the Cork industry known as the Lee Boot Factory appears in several articles on the nature of its growing manufacture in Cork.

Dwyers were established in 1820 by James Dwyer, who invested in the creation of a drapery, wholesale and haberdashery business in an emerging new city neighbourhood at 26-29 Great Georges Street (now Washington Street). The premises comprised a number of building blocks.

In 1876 the Dwyer family created a branch industry known as the Lee Boot Manufacturing Factory. It was a spin-out branch of Dwyers manufacturing interests in the manufacture of “shirts, ladies under clothing, handmade base quilts, Irish crochet lace, carpet bars and emigrants’ trunks”.

In the early 1880s, an expanded boot factory premises was based on Lancaster Quay (formerly Square Deal furniture store).

In 1879, Messrs Dwyer and Company was converted into a limited liability company. In July 1891, the company was reconstituted with a capital of over £100,000. The shares were considerably over subscribed for.

In 1892, Stratten and Stratten’s ‘Dublin, Cork, and South of Ireland: A Literary, Commercial, and Social Review Past & Present’ provided a detailed write-up on the nature of the business. Reference is made to a writer from Boston who penned an article for the Boot and Shoe Recorder of the 20 October 1891 and who noted that he was impressed on his tour that he made of the boot factory section.

“I was more than surprised at the manner in which these gentlemen have taken hold of this branch of their business, which was started about five years ago; at the present time they have a factory employing 70 hands, the entire product of which they sell to their own trade. They manufacture 500 to 600 pairs per week, and they have a capacity for double that amount.”

The machinery of the factory was laid down by the celebrated American firm – the Rockingham Machine Company. It was one of the first set of American shoe machinery ever installed in the south of Ireland.

Up to the 1890s when Dwyers commenced manufacturing, they had bought boots and shoes from the Irish market or through the import market, and then sold them. After a trial of manufacturing, it was found that they could give as good value, and in most cases better value, than the goods they paid to import.

The Lee Boot Factory became one of the city’s four core boot factories by the 1890s. Trade depressions, intense competition in the southern region because of war periods of civil unrest did not stop the rapid rise of the company’s success. The Lee Boot Factory’s success was as a result of the high-quality of the products and also as a result of the aspirations of the management.

On 14 October 1925, a Cork Examiner journalist met James Dwyer for an interview on his opinion on the Irish Free State Government’s protectionist policy tariffs on imports of certain products from the UK. The 1924 national budget began tariffs on a variety of goods including motor buddies, boots and shoes, confection and bottles – all in an attempt to escalate Irish native manufacturing. The 1925 budget brought tariffs on a larger range of items, including clothing and blankets and furniture applications.

James Dwyer gave the Cork Examiner journalist an outline of the beneficial results of tariffs so far as it related to boot manufacture in Cork. He pointed out that from 1 January to 8 October 1923 the output was 76,000 pairs in their Lee Boot Factory. For the same period in the year 1924 the first year the duties were imposed – the output was 93,000 pairs. The output increased to 164,000 pairs in 1925, which practically doubled the income that was taken in 1923, namely to £34,086.

The number of people employed in 1923 was 178, who were working two-thirds time. In 1924, 280 people were employed who were working three-quarters time. In 1925 there were 320 people employed who were working full-time. So between 1923 and 1925, the number employed had nearly doubled.

To meet the extra demands on their company’s wider production, it was necessary for the firm to provide a considerable addition to the space that they had available. They had some months previously to the October 1925 interview accommodated new premises, which allowed them to extend their factory space on Washington Street. It had just been finished by the Cork Examiner interview. The new space amounted to 14,000 feet. The floor space in the old building was 30,000 feet.

In addition, Dwyers acquired a new premises on Hanover Street, where only ladies and children’s shoes would be made. The floor space of the Hanover Street Building, which had just been completed, was 15,000ft. The total expenditure and extensions within 1925 amounted to over £20,000, which was a very sizeable investment. The proposed plan for Hanover Street for the ensuing twelve months was that it would produce 200,000 pairs of boots. The estimated number of people required for such employment was 250, and that the estimated wages to pay those people would be £35,000.

In the course of his Cork Examiner interview, James Dwyer emphasises the fact that the prices of his boots had not increased. That was notwithstanding the fact that in 1924 there was a rise in leather prices. In spite of the increase in prices, the company had been able to keep the quality and to keep prices down. Overhead charges were less when having a larger production output.

James Dwyer also describes that the Hanover Street factory was managed by a well-known English manufacturer, who had great experience, as he had started or managed a big factory in Argentina for eight years where the output amounted to 750,000 pairs per year, and only left that country for health considerations.

In his concluding remarks in his interview, James Dwyer argued that he expected that in a very short time on the shoes that are required would be made in this country, just as cheaply

as operational factories in the UK. Therefore, he asserted that the only effect of the tariffs would be that one would be employing more people and providing more wages.

The Lee Boot Factory survived until circa 1980. It then became the Square Deal furniture store for forty years. It is now the home of Broga House student accommodation.

Happy New Year to all readers!

If you missed an article last year, log onto www.corkheritage.ie and view the past articles section.