Clogs: the wooden ones, were they ever common in old Ireland?

I haven't a clue, but i thought it was interesting, so I put your question into an Ai search, and it came back with this:

"Yes, wooden and wood-soled clogs were worn in Ireland historically, though they were primarily associated with specific working-class trades, agricultural settings, and the development of traditional Irish dance. Here is how clogs featured in Irish and broader European history:

1. Protection and Agricultural Use Throughout Europe, wooden shoes were prized by the poorer classes and agricultural workers because they were cheap, highly durable, and excellent at protecting the feet in wet or muddy conditions. Similar to the all-wood Dutch klompen, Irish laborers who could not afford expensive leather boots often used wooden or wood-based protective footwear for toiling in the fields.

2. Wood and Leather Clogs Unlike the traditional all-wood Dutch styles, the British and Irish versions were often manufactured with thick wooden soles and uppers made of sturdy leather. These lasted a long time and were famously used during the Industrial Revolution by mill and factory workers. Before clogs became popular workwear, earlier forms known as "pattens" (wooden bases strapped over regular shoes) were used by various classes to elevate the feet above the mud and waste found on roads.

3. Roots in Irish Dance Historical accounts suggest that hard-soled footwear has been used in traditional Irish dancing for centuries. Early dancers used both traditional wooden clogs and leather shoes to create the rhythmic percussive beats that remain synonymous with Irish step dancing and sean-nós dancing today.

4. General Historical Context Historically, the majority of the working and rural population in Ireland—especially children—frequently went completely barefoot, meaning that having any shoe (let alone a clog) was a luxury. When people did wear socks, they frequently wore footless stockings or heavy knit leg coverings inside their clogs or shoes."

I tell ya CR, we tend to forget how good we've got things today, until you read back on how things were for people in the past. Yet still, they danced.

Wooden soles with leather upper in various colours were definitely around and quite popular in the 70s early 80s here.

Edit, I see you mean historically. I would doubt it simply based on the paucity of wealth here.

I've never heard of them being a thing in Ireland. In parts of Northern England and the English Midlands they were worn up to maybe early 20th century. I'm sure they're mentioned by D.H Lawrence in his semi autobiographical novels. I also have a vague memory of reading about a murder in some part of England the late 19th century where this laborour murdered a female schoolteacher and the line "he finished her off with one of his clogs" sticks in my mind.

A couple of other reasons would be the far wetter climate here meaning hide would be a better option, added to that the likelihood of very few, if any, paved surfaces that would need protection against. People were walking on grass for the most part i would imagine.

The poor Irish people who couldn't afford shoes back in the olden days. You can see people bare footed in old pictures of America but that was most likely preference due to the heat over there. In the heat it is nice to go barefoot. This is Ireland and we do not get real heat. So it's worse to be bare foot here. Europe would be the same with the heat.