KILDARE: End of an era as three generations old business closes its doors

You won’t be “following” Bill Glennon on social media. Not now anyway; not that you ever could.

The Naas man is a local institution and is known far beyond his workshop base. He is a third generation cobbler/shoemaker following in the footsteps of his grandfather William and his father, also William. In his ninth decade now and born in 1936, he’s decided to retire.

Bill is old school. He doesn’t do social media and the closest he’ll come to TikTok is the tip tap sound of him bringing a pair of shoes back to a working life.

He’d make for a good interview, but he politely declined the offer, beyond thanking those who passed through his door over a long and unusual career.

He thinks that there will be less demand for his craft as synthetic materials replace leather as the raw material for shoes.

Far from having an Instagram account or a Facebook profile; he couldn't be more understated. 

If he has a phone, landline or mobile, he doesn't advertise it. Instead customers will see a notice on his door advising that he’ll be “back in five minutes” if said door is closed.

You’d walk past his two storey townhouse workshop at New Row, if you didn’t already know where it is. There are no coloured lights, no in-your-face signage, no dancing ladies to tell you he is at work within.

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There is a small sign in the window bearing the words “Bill Glennon Shoe Repairs” that's the only concession to the fact that the workshop is there.

Inside there is no waiting area, no seating and no back copies of National Geographic magazine to keep you entertained. It’s a bit cramped and if he isn’t hunched over working on a pair  of shoes as you arrive then he’ll emerge, apparition-like, from a back room.

He doesn't bother with numbered receipts but can remember every pair of shoes in his custody.

He has been leaving a small carbon footprint long before it became fashionable or, more recently, a matter of planet survival.

It is better, for example, if you bring your own bag. Because you can be sure you won’t be leaving with your shoes in a multicoloured retro design box or bag advertising his existence and his talents.

Instead of building a “digital relationship”, Bill specialises in the real ones, like actual conversation.

His customers leave not just with their shoes but his views on the latest shenanigans in Dáil Éireann or a bit of word for a horse running in a hurdle race at Punchestown or Plumpton.

In 2012, he won the Naas Local History Group’s annual heritage award for his long contribution to the craft heritage of Naas. Then chairperson Ger McCarthy observed “when I call into Bill to get a pair of shoes soled or heeled, Bill keeps talking  and working away with the tools of his craft - the last, cobblers, hammer, leather knife, awl, pliers, pincers, rasp and all the other tools of his craft.” 

Two years before he was the subject of a short film.

He is an antidote to the concept of planned obsolescence - the practice of making things so that they will only be usable for a short time.

He was ahead of us all promoting upcycling before any of us, Bill included, knew what it was.

It’s a cliche to offer that he’s the last of a dying breed.

But as sole practitioners of many kinds of business like his disappear from the main street, the departure lounge is filling up.

And we’ll all be a little poorer when he's gone.