Initially dancers in Ireland did not wear various kinds of shoes made by various schools of dance and it is quite an identity for the dancers jigs, reels and slip jigs. Male dancers wore rawhide shoes,shoes but then around 20th century they started wearing soft shoes when dancing These shoes can be found on the Aran Islands where they which were not very heavy and were quite suitable for dancing. by some fishermen
on the west coast when it became illegal to teachare named Broga uirleathair. Step dancing evolved from the wooden soled taps or clogs traditional music, the rhythm of thewhich were worn by tapping the hard shoes on the flag stones in the kitchen. 
dance tune was passed down to the younger generation made for step dancing and for reels and jigs soft shoes similar to ballet pumps are worn.Now those shoes are transformed into hornpipe shoes, which are specially Lately there are.
