After almost 140 years in operation Finnegan’s of Bailieboro located on the main street is set to close its doors for the final time.
The drapery store has been at the cornerstone of the community since 1887. The store will be closed in the next week to 10 days.
John Finnegan has decided to retire and close the store marking an end of an era in the town on the four generations operated family business. Following a few health issues he says the time is right and it’s time to call it a day. He says he has had great times in the store and has met some amazing people.
The local man says growing up over the store, he knew no different adding that times have changed with the retail landscape, online shopping and out of town multinationals has changed the whole concept of retail
John says it was the people from the area that supported the business over the almost 140 years and he says he will certainly miss the shop but will hold the memories close to his heart. “You know, you miss people over the years, real characters and really genuine people you can have a laugh with, and that’s what it was. It was a focus of meeting and conversation. But a lot of those people who I reminisce, they’re passed on now and you wake at night and ask yourself is this person alive that then you’d remember, Oh no, this person’s passed on. But really, really, really nice people. You know, I can’t say anything bad about because it’s those people that kept the shop going. I’ll probably shed a tear on the last day, but that’s it has to has to happen.
John recalls one of his early memories of the shop and living over the store overlooking the main street of the town. He remembers the shop as a young person growing up here, “I remember on Christmas Eves, my room, was the top of the house, and I could look out onto the main street and Christmas Eve about, nine o’clock in the evening, and I’d only be about seven or eight, looking out at all the other shops, and they were busy, and the pubs were busy.
The people were on great form, and there was cheering and all that. It was a momentous time. But that time Christmas started, really, at the 8th of December, there would be a slow build up to it, to be waiting for the busses then to come in from Dublin, who was coming home from England, America and all that, and then they would go into the pubs to have a drink or two before heading home.”
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