Shopping

The Square

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Something to Crow About

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An Old Postbox

Image and copy from Old Postboxes on Facebook

This is a very historical piece…the original post box dates between 1911 and 1921…and Saorstát Éireann dates from 1922 to 1937….unusual in that original door was taken off and replaced…. but retained the original logo’s…. Knocksedan Ireland….. no longer in use….

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That Edward VII postbox dates from 1901 to 1905; after 1905 the royal cypher was used.

This wallbox has been removed..I believe stolen a couple of years ago….

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Shops and Shopping Memories

by Mick O’Callaghan

I remember Woolworths shop coming to Tralee in the early fifties. There was great excitement at the arrival of this new shopping experience for the people of Tralee. It had a special significance for me because I was starting school, and I was not happy to be held in captivity within the confines of a classroom with a locked door. Sr Immaculata told me that my mother was gone to Woolworths to buy me a present, whereupon I told her that she was a liar because Woolworths shop was not yet open. I lashed out and kicked her. That incident gave me the title for my published memoir ‘The boy who kicked the nun”.

Yes, Woolworths opened a whole new shopping experience for the people of the Tralee catchment area with its array of sweets, chocolates and a wide range of goods. I remember buying my first fishing rod there.

Woolworths was a bright star in the middle of the more traditional shops and institutions around it.

We had Revington’s store selling high class drapery and household goods. It was our Harrods of Tralee. People flocked in there and loved it

There were traditional butchers shops a plenty. I remember Mr Mulcahy in Wilsons Shop slicing rashers to perfection on the slicing machine. Mr Harmon sold loose sweets in paper tósíns, his wine gums were to die for. Yes, and we had Healy’s dairy selling ice cream and dairy products. Oh memories, memories of Havercrofts bakery, of Benners that sold every conceivable household gadget imaginable. There was Kelliher’s, McCowen’s and Latchford’s stores and yards with their hardware, fuel and building supplies. Yes, there is a rich memory bank from our early shopping days, but all is changed now with less local ownership and a huge diversity in suppliers and supplies.

We also had the Munster and Leinster bank with Bank of Ireland close by. They were revered national institutions where all shopkeepers queued up on Monday mornings to lodge the weekend takings. Young people aspired to getting a position there because it was regarded as a safe secure pensionable job for life. The local bank managers were well respected figures in the community. Little did they think that such noble institutions would crash and cause such inestimable damage and stress to the lives of ordinary people. They would also bring long serving businesspeople to their knees and cause national economies to collapse. Irish life was changed for ever by the collapse of the banks.

Apart from these we had a few grocers’ shops, and they had their regular clients. Our grocer of choice was O Connors and Mikey, the owner, was a relation of the family, on my mother’s side. He was a Fianna Fail Politician and that did not sit too easily with my father who was opposed to him politically, but practicality had to prevail because the choice of grocer’s shops was limited, and we shopped with Mikey.

More tomorrow

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Sunday in Ballincollig

I was in Ballincollig yesterday, Sunday February 22 2025.

I was there to support my granddaughter and her team, Lakewood, in The National Cup U14 soccer tournament. They beat Drogheda 5/1 and are now into the quarter finals.

Cora is on the far left, with the headband in Carine’s photo.

While I was in Ballincollig I called to the shopping centre for my newspaper.

This was the scene 10 minutes before New Look opened to begin its closing down sale.

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A Fact

For every human on earth there are approximately one million ants.

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