{"id":607138,"date":"2026-08-28T10:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607138\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:34:18","slug":"the-last-of-irelands-independent-grocers-you-could-call-it-a-key-part-of-my-social-life-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607138\/","title":{"rendered":"The last of Ireland\u2019s independent grocers: \u2018You could call it a key part of my social life\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a bright and busy morning on Pearse Street in Kinsale<\/a>, Co Cork<\/a>, when just before 10.30am John McCarthy calls into Murphy\u2019s grocery shop to make his regular purchase for lunch.<\/p>\n

It is two slices of ham and two cherry tomatoes. <\/p>\n

It is the kind of order grocer Sheila Murphy has received on more than one occasion over the past 50 years or so. <\/p>\n

Up the west coast, the last independent grocer standing in Castlebar, Co Mayo<\/a>, can relate to such orders.<\/p>\n

Although Shane Rodgers did quip to a certain customer who had a proclivity for buying two slices of luncheon roll: \u201cYou must be having a party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy and Rodgers don\u2019t know each other but they have a lot in common. Both are from that fast-disappearing cohort of traditional, small family-owned grocers who are not aligned to chains such as Centra, Spar, Daybreak or Costcutter. <\/p>\n

There are up to 35,000 family-run grocery shops in the country but the vast majority have joined franchises to aid their economic viability. For the small numbers still paddling their own canoes, they rely mainly on local producers and cash-and-carry wholesalers for their goods. <\/p>\n

John McCarthy has been calling into Murphy\u2019s of Kinsale for more than 50 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very convenient and they\u2019ve got everything,\u201d he says. \u201cFantastic ham and they do lovely local breads, cakes and bracks. I\u2019d only go to a supermarket occasionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn McCarthy outside Murphy Grocers in Co Cork. Photograph: \u00c1ine Ryan <\/p>\n

McCarthy is not the only customer who prefers the personal touch offered in Murphy\u2019s, says Sheila. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile you are buying your groceries you can have a bit of a chat, hear about who has got married and who has died and if you need an electrician or a plumber, or if you are a visitor and want to know where the post office is, we\u2019re happy to help. In some ways during the summer, we are nearly like a tourist office.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been more than 70 years since her late mother, Ellen McCarthy, moved the 30km from Kilbrittain to Kinsale and married Jim Murphy, a small farmer from Bandon. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It is so important to support smaller shops\u2019: west coast villages counting on loyal localsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

While Ellen ran the grocery shop, two of her sisters moved to the town also and ran drapery shops for many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe draperies may be long gone but the grocery shop hasn\u2019t changed in size or shape over the 70 years,\u201d Sheila says. \u201cThere were four of us sisters growing up and we all worked in it. When one went away to boarding school, another would step in, and when one got married, somebody else stepped in. <\/p>\n

\u201cI took it over 35 years ago and I run it now with help from my sister Nora O\u2019Brien,\u201d says Sheila, who never married and lives nearby in the town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only now we don\u2019t have much of the next generation available to work here. Sure the nieces and nephews all have their own careers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Murphy recalls how there were two main grocery shops on the street in the past. \u201cThere was ourselves and, where the Market Garden is now, that was called Maisie\u2019s. Maisie\u2019s was the very same as ourselves, and my mother and herself were great friends. It was a friendly competition.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"SheilaSheila Murphy outside her shop. Photograph: \u00c1ine Ryan <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder now. I suppose I would be relying on an older clientele, and then we have the tourists during the summer. A lot of the holidaymakers come back every year and love the chat and the locally made and grown produce,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Murphy, a keen cyclist and walker, has no problem with opening every morning at 7am.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could call it a key part of my social life,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cMany of my customers have become my friends.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rodger\u2019s on Spencer Street in Castlebar adheres to the same early-morning regime. While Shane is now an octogenarian and has handed over the reins somewhat to his son Paul, with help from daughter Louise, he is still at the helm.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Family shops in Mayo on their challenges: \u2018At one point council rates were almost \u20ac20,000 a year\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

When The Irish Times joins him for tea and a chat in the upstairs sittingroom, he has already done the banking for the day and will help stock the shelves later. <\/p>\n

This is where he was raised from seven years old, when his family moved down the street after his uncle Pa gave his mother Alice the shop.<\/p>\n

\"LaylaLayla Carney with Shane Rodgers at Rodgers’ shop in Castlebar. Photograph: \u00c1ine Ryan <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my granduncle Thomas Gavin who set up a bakery here in 1898 and it later became a safe house for on-the-run IRA men during the Civil War whilst, ironically, having the contract for bread with the British army barracks in the town,\u201d says Rodgers.<\/p>\n

He took over the business in 1971, after his parents died, having worked in Castlebar Bacon Factory\u2019s accounts department for 14 years.<\/p>\n

He and his wife, Pauline, raised their seven children over this busy shop, with the young mother also feeding all the staff. Pauline was also in charge of cleaning the ice-cream machine each evening to ensure the shop\u2019s reputation for selling the best ice-cream in the county town remained intact.<\/p>\n

When asked if the children also helped, Rodgers jokes: \u201cNot really. They helped themselves, all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missing cigarettes from packets, as well as chocolates and sweets were the favourite contraband, although the thieves never ended up in the courthouse, which is just across the road. <\/p>\n

When Rodgers started out in the retail business there were 31 small grocery shops in Castlebar in the 1970s. His little shop is effectively the last of its type now. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still here because we continued to diversify and we extended the shop back in 2000 and invested \u20ac300,000,\u201d he says. It is the only way to survive. If you walk around Castlebar nowadays, a lot of those old premises are derelict or empty. The Aldis and the Lidls have taken over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their continued bid for survival, they also upgraded their fridges and freezers last year to make them more sustainable and cost-efficient, with support from the council via an energy-efficiency grant. \u201cIt has been a game-changer for electricity costs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"LouiseLouise Rodgers. Photograph: \u00c1ine Ryan <\/p>\n

Back in the old days, most of the shop\u2019s customers came from out the Ballyheane and Westport roads and from around the town. These days, however, there is a big dependence on the nearby secondary school, just around the corner on the historic Mall, once the site of Lord Lucan\u2019s cricket pitch. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a lot of customers from the courthouse, also on the Mall. Back in the olden days we used to sell a lot of ham but now its prepared sandwiches and hot food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Diversification for this family business has seen daughter Alice open a coffee and smoothie takeaway next door.<\/p>\n

Hard work may be the ethos of this family, but when Shane Rodgers is seen every evening picking up litter in the sylvan gardens of the Mall, its part of the pleasure of his daily constitutional walk. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a bright and busy morning on Pearse Street in Kinsale, Co Cork, when just before 10.30am John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,17439,46,61,60,6202,8764],"class_list":["post-607138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-castlebar","tag-cork","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kinsale","tag-mayo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}