Last week, one of
those dark coincidences which come to all of us at some time or other in our
lives occurred in my life. Kieran
Dockery and Nan Clarke lived in Prosperous and both died within a few days of
each other. Both were married and
coincidentally their partners in marriage were colleagues of mine in Kildare
County Council in the early 1960’s. Carmel Fitzpatrick worked in the Accounts
Section and Noel Clarke worked, as I did, in the Health Section of the Council
initially under Noel Finn and later Jimmy Tully. Carmel and Noel were extremely kind to the
garrulous gauchy red haired lad from Athy who was assigned to the Health
Section early in 1961.
I recall both with
great affection and remember the day when Noel and myself conspired to push
Carmel’s trusty old motor car down the driveway of St. Mary’s and out of sight
causing alarm and much vexation when Carmel came out of work that evening to
drive home. The car was gone and Carmel
could not understand why her colleagues could be so casual about what was the
apparent theft of her trusted
transporter. Every strategem was
deployed to extract the maximum reaction from the hapless victim short of
allowing her to call the local Gardai.
Carmel married
Kieran Dockery, a School Teacher and a
talented footballer who played for the County Senior team as goalkeeper in 1961
and 1962. Noel married Nan Clarke of Prosperous and last week both
Kieran and Nan passed away. My sympathy
on their sad losses go to my old work mates Carmel and Noel.
Last weekend I
attended a seminar in the National Museum in Collins Barracks Dublin on World
War I. Thomas Burgh was the Architect for the Barracks which was built in the
early 18th Century and he was also the Architect for Bert House
which he designed for his brother. A few
days later, I came across a photograph in the Irish Independent of the 9th
August 1938 showing an open air boxing match between Ireland and Germany which
took place in the square in the centre of Collins Barracks. The photograph was of interest because the
Irish Boxing Team which fought that night included an Athy man, Dick Reid. Dick, who so far as I can find out, was the
first Athy man ever to represent Ireland in any sport. A few days later, I had occasion to contact
the Irish Amateur Boxing Association which organises and control Amateur Boxing
in Ireland looking for information on the boxing career of Dick Reid. I was told that Jim Kane, who knew Dick very
well had died just a few days previously aged 82 years. Jim was for a long time the caretaker of the
National Stadium in Dublin and as a relation of the Chanders Family of Athy got
to know and admire Dick Reid when Dick was boxing in the late 1930’s. Dick Reid, International Boxer from
Blackparks in Athy will be the subject of a future Eye on the past.
This week
attention was caught by succession of large signs in the windows of Shaws Store
advertising a sale to celebrate the firms 140th Anniversary. Shaw’s are synonymous with Athy although the
firm has a connection going back to the 1860’s with Mountmellick where Henry
Shaw opened his first small drapery shop.
Duncans Department Store owned by Duncans of Fortbarrington House, now
Tonlegee House was acquired by Sam Shaw in 1915. For some years previously, Sam had worked in
the Duncan Store and when he took over the store the year before the Easter
Rebellion, it marked a further expansion of the Shaw business enterprise which
had previously been extended to
Portlaoise. “The Boot Mart” had
been opened in Portlaoise by the Shaw family just 25 years before the Athy
store. Later on, Sam Shaw acquired the
premises in Duke Street, previously occupied by Brennan’s where he opened a
hardware shop. By 1919, Shaws consisted
of drapery Stores in Mountmellick, Portlaoise and Athy and a Hardware Store in
Athy. Five years later, the enterprise
was registered as a Private Limited Company, a legal entity which remains to
this day.
Sam Shaw was the
Managing Director and under his guidance, the business again expanded with the
acquisition of a store in Waterford from Robertson Ledlie Ferguson in 1941.
Shaw’s Store in Carlow was opened in June 1949 but following its destruction by
fire in November of the following year, it was rebuilt in 1951. Three years later, Gaze and Jessop’s Hardware
Store in Portlaoise was purchased by Shaws and this business was subsequently
transferred to the new Centrepoint Centre in 1973.
The Shaw group
opened a Wholesale operation in 1960 under the style Shaws Wholesale Limited
and the 1960’s marked the initial moves which culminated in Shaws becoming
“Almost Nationwide”. An additional
branch was opened in Roscrea followed by another in Fermoy before Shaws moved
into Dublin with the opening of a store in Ballymun. In 1973, Shaws opened a new store in the
Crescent Shopping Centre in Limerick and three years later acquired Hadden’s
which operated stores in Carlow, Dungarvan and Wexford. Further stores were subsequently opened in
Dun Laoghaire and Tralee and a major rebuilding programme saw stores rebuilt in
Carlow, Waterford and Dungarvan.
Today the Shaw
group of Companies comprises fourteen Department Stores and two Shopping
Centres employing over 600 persons.
Henry Shaw who established the first small drapery store in Mountmellick
in the 1860’s was succeeded by his son Sam and the business now “Almost
Nationwide” is now under the corporate Directorship of Sam’s sons, William,
Mervyn and Trevor. It is planned to redevelop Shaw’s Athy Store in the near
future and that development when it comes will give enormous fillip to Athy’s
retailing sector. Congratulations to
everyone in Shaws for the 140 year old success story.
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