Shaws Department Store

The story of Shaw’s Department Stores has its beginning in the quaker town of Mountmellick.  It was largely through the industry of the local quaker families that Mountmellick was known in the early part of the 19^th Century as the “Manchester of Ireland”.  Upwards of 2,000 men, women and children worked in the local cotton industry in the mid 1830’s while another major employer was the brass and iron foundries of which there were once several in Mountmellick. 

The County Laois town was also home to a vibrant Methodist Community and it was one of his members, Henry Shaw, who opened the first small Shaw’s store in 1864.   However, it was the drive and acumen of his wife, the former Annie Smith of Enniscorthy, following the death of her husband who developed the business with quite remarkable success. 

In 1887 Henry and Annie Shaw purchased a small store known as the Boot Store in the adjoining town of Portlaoise.  Five years later Henry Shaw died leaving his widow and nine children.  Undaunted, the Enniscorthy born Annie Shaw continued to manage the two stores.  She proved so successful that in 1902 following the completion of her eldest son’s apprenticeship as a drapery assistant, she acquired a further premises in Portlaoise from which Shaw’s would carry on their drapery and footwear business for over 110 years.

Her son, William Henry Shaw, managed the Portlaoise business while his mother oversaw the original Mountmellick store.  Annie’s son Samuel who was born in 1888 was  apprenticed at 14 years of age to Duncan’s of Duke Street, Athy.  After finishing his apprenticeship, Samuel Shaw, who would in time become the most important figure in the Shaw business empire, spent six years learning the tailoring trade in London.  He returned to Ireland to rejoin his mother and brother William Henry and when Duncan’s, the largest store  in Athy, went into receivership in 1914. Annie  Shaw acquired the business. 

In 1929, William Henry Shaw who had charge of the Athy store died unexpectedly and his brother Sam took over management of the store which for several decades would serve as the flagship of the Shaw’s family enterprise.  Waterford City was the location of the first Shaw’s store outside the Irish midlands.  Purchased from Robertson, Leslie and Ferguson in 1941, it was followed 8 years later by the acquisitions of Brown’s drapery store in Carlow. 

The 1950’s was a period of retrenchment and it was not until 1964 that further businesses and premises were acquired by Shaw’s.  Roscrea and Ballymun were in quick succession chosen as the location of Shaw’s newest outlets.  Seven years later saw the start of an acquisition surge by Shaw’s which commenced with the purchase of premises in Fermoy, soon followed by the opening of shops in Limerick, Dungarvan, Wexford and a second premises in Carlow.  Today Shaw’s trade in 17 different towns in Ireland with the latest store opened in Longford in 2013.

The business started by Henry and Annie Shaw 150 years ago is still very much a family firm with several members of the extended Shaw families sitting on the Board of Directors.  Other Shaw family members are part of the large working force employed in the countrywide stores.

To Annie Shaw, the hardworking co-founder 150 years ago of the first Shaw’s shop, must be attributed a large measure of the Company’s initial success.  A skilled dressmaker, Annie had two sewing machines which she employed in making up ladies coats, dresses and skirt.  Astute in purchasing material which she imported from Manchester, Annie developed the business while at the same time creating job opportunities for women at the turn of the century in millinery and drapery retail sales.   This was at a time when employment of women outside the home was largely confined to domestic services.

When Annie Shaw died in 1933  the management and control of the Shaw retailing business passed to her son Samuel who was then living in Athy.  He it was who expanded the business beyond the three midland locations of Mountmellick, Portlaoise and Athy.  By the time of his death in 1980, Shaw’s had added ten further locations to its business with a geographical spread which extended to Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Dublin and several towns in between.

Today the family run business has a fourth generation Shaw as Managing Director and the slogan (no longer in use of “Shaws Almost Nationwide” is a perfect indication of the geographical spread of the retailing giant which had its origins in Mountmellick in 1864.

Shaws

In the past religious and class differences tended to keep apart Protestant and Roman Catholics socially and in the workplace and this segregation was fostered by a mutual suspicion which was self-perpetuating. Attitudes changed and a decision by Sam Shaw, Proprietor of Shaws Department Store in Athy over 50 years ago helped to break the mould.

I remember when growing up in Athy in the 1950's the female assistants working in Shaws who were the last in a long line of girls and young men who had come to the town from addresses all over Ireland to be apprenticed to the drapery trade. The girls, all of whom were of Protestant stock, lived over the premises where they had their quarters, quite separate from the men who had rooms at the back of the yard. A housekeeper was employed to provide meals and keep an eye on any inhouse activity which might not meet with the Proprietor’s approval.

In the mid-thirties Shaws was home to upwards of 20 young women, all of whom paid £25 per year for the privilege of undergoing a three year apprenticeship at the counter. It was only when they qualified that they become eligible for a wage which amounted to £6 per month. The hours were long with a 9.00 o'clock start, half an hour for lunch, finishing at 6.00 p.m. on weekdays and 9.00p.m. on Saturday. Indeed the Saturday closing time often stretched to 10.00p.m. if there were customers still lingering on the premises. Staff had a half day off on a Thursday which was the town’s early closing day.

The girls in the early 1940's included many who were to marry and settle down in Athy. Lucy Dobson was to marry Bob Bryan, while Ethel Donaldson married John Meredith. Florrie Bass who came from Wexford married local farmer Bill Hendy, while Mary Gunnell married John Hendy. Others who worked and lived in Shaws during the war years included Frances Dobson, Etta Eacrett, May Sinnott and Amelia Boyhan. Jenny Hegarty whose home town was Athy was one of the few locals working in Shaws who lived out. The girls generally spent their leisure hours playing badminton or participating in activities of the Girls Friendly Society in the Parochial Hall on the Carlow Road.

Everyone living in was required to keep to a strict 10.00p.m. curfew and woe betide anyone who without good reason sought to stay out any longer. For all that, life was very pleasant for the girls and the men who lived in around that time including George Bryan, Victor Leigh, Jim Boyd and Jim Leggett. Indeed one of the great stories of the time concerned Jim Leggett's unusual use of the pulley system within the shop which sent monies and invoices along a series of wires to the cash office from each sales counter. The money was put into a circular box which screwed into a holder and was then propelled overhead to the cashier who took out the money and returned the box with any change via the same route. Jim, obviously determined to liven up proceedings in the shop one morning sent his box whizzing overhead to the female cashier who duly reached up to unscrew the box and emptied out it’s contents - a dead mouse. It is safe to assume that the Proprietor, Sam Shaw, was not on the premises that morning.

Sam who lived in the Mill House opposite Hannon's Mill in Duke Street before moving to Cardenton was regarded kindly by his staff. Dissatisfaction however was always registered by him if a potential customer was allowed to leave the premises without purchasing. This to Sam Shaw was inexcusable calling forth a myriad of questions as to what had been shown or not shown to the customer.

At one time Catholics were not employed in Shaws. Unfortunately it is not always remembered that this practice ceased as early as the 1940's. I believe that the first Catholic to work there was Doris Ruddy, a daughter of the local Garda Sergeant who left Athy in 1945 to be replaced by my own father. Her brother also worked in the Mens Department of Shaws at that time.

The advertising slogan says "Shaws - Almost Nationwide" but to Athy people Shaws is a local institution which helped in no small way to break down the barriers between Protestant and Roman Catholic. For this we have to thank Sam Shaw who started a process of community integration over 50 years ago of which we are the beneficiaries today.