The popular nursery rhyme which we all know from the title above is like all nursery rhymes - they all originate from somewhere and someone. The difference with this rhyme is that it is more of a bio as every part of it is true and it happened here.
A woman by the name of Mrs Mary Goose worked at the ferry bridge back in the early 1700's collecting tolls from people who wanted to cross the river on a ferry between Inistioge and New Ross for a local landlord. Mother Goose which she became known eventually lived far from here and had to travel on foot each day over the harsh rough terrain with always the threat of highway men waiting to rob people. Her family got bigger over the years as she got older. She had no husband as one day he was robbed at the side of the road and he was never given back.
The woman pleaded with the landlord for some land near her place of work so she would have some comfort in her life as the years went on. He put it to her that she would get a very small piece of land near by but she had to triple the amount she was taking in at the ferry tole or else she would loss the land, the job and be cast out to the rough surrounding roads where been stolen was just a matter of time.
She decided to build a large shoe to live in which would also have room for her 13 children. In those days people didn't have shoes so to live in one was was like if we were to live in a Ferrari - we all want one but hard to live in. The plan was for this weird establishment to encourage people to come from near and far to see it and this would mean they would have to cross on the ferry which would triple the amount taken in.
At first this worked, she pulled in the money as the people flocked to see her shoe house. She even got to extend it over time. At one point she got a shoe box built beside to use as a shed and then got a third story put on the house by changing the shoe to a high heel. Eventually the New Ross county council wanted to make some of this money the landlord was pulling in. So they went and built a dam up the river which stopped the flow and made the ferry redundant as people could then cross on foot anywhere because they didn't have shoes in those days.
The landlord had to make a deal with the council and build a bridge which put an end to the toll ferry, an end to Mother Goose and the 13 children, even though most had been stolen by this stage. She was booted out of her house where she had to walk barefoot (since they did not have shoes in those days) on the rough surrounding roads for the remaining years of her life constantly in fear of been stolen.