{"id":635725,"date":"2026-09-25T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635725\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:20:11","slug":"ranelagh-off-licence-redmonds-to-close-ive-never-worked-because-its-such-great-fun-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635725\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranelagh off-licence Redmonds to close: \u2018I\u2019ve never worked because it\u2019s such great fun\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than 50 years serving the people of Ranelagh, Dublin 6<\/a>, Jimmy Redmond of Redmonds off-licence is tickled that news of his retirement and the sale of the business has gone international. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been coming out of the woodwork. I had a guy who heard from his son who lives in New Zealand. Another customer told me we were the talk of a pub in some town in Spain,\u201d says Redmond (70) of the response to the For Sale sign appearing outside the shop. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to hear it and there\u2019s genuine warmth and I suppose sadness in a way. I would like to thank people for all the support and everything over the years, and all the fun we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redmonds, an institution in the southside Dublin suburb, started life when Jimmy\u2019s parents bought the business in 1943.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was primarily a grocery shop, with a four-foot unit of wine and sherry out the back. It wasn\u2019t actually even in the store; we sold Cardinal red sherry and things like that. My parents ran it as a grocery probably for about 35 or 40 years and then my brother Aidan came into the business, followed by me about seven years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of nine children, Redmond\u2019s entry came at age 16; he recalls being taken out of school the week after Easter so he could start working, initially as a grocer\u2019s apprentice. Over time, he discovered a talent for the wine business and Redmonds grew to become a grocer with a dedicated off-licence section, before the off-licence took over the whole shop in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time we were told we were mad, that it would never work, but thankfully it did \u2013 it worked very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing was driven by both declining grocery trade, as supermarkets became popular, and a growing wine-drinking culture in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grocery business was becoming difficult. We felt you either had to be a specialist in something or join a group like Spar and become just another link in the chain, so we decided to focus on the off-licence, and have never looked back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Connemara\u2019s Killary Fjord named as top global travel destination by Lonely PlanetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great time to be in this trade because it was at the infancy stage where it began to blossom. People began to realise they could afford things they previously couldn\u2019t. In those days there wasn\u2019t really a big off-licence category in the in the multiples. The drinks trade was still pub-orientated; drinking at home hadn\u2019t really sort of developed as it has now.\u201d <\/p>\n

From the customer\u2019s perspective, Redmonds offered a wider knowledge of wine than many retailers and the brothers were known for dispensing direct, no-nonsense advice. They championed speciality spirits and good beer ahead of many others as well as importing an always interesting selection of wines. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Wine on tap \u2013 is it the way forward for restaurants and bars?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Redmond was also known for getting the best prices from wholesalers. Being thrown out of the shop was almost a badge of honour among sales representatives; they just needed the courage to go back in a few days later and apologise for whatever misdemeanour they had committed.<\/p>\n

Having reached 70, Redmond feels he can look back on a happy career just off the Triangle in the heart of Ranelagh, with the off-licence providing \u201ca dream job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to meet fabulous people, we built great relationships with our customers and the people of Ranelagh and afar … I\u2019ve maintained that I\u2019ve never worked because it\u2019s such great fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

His brother Aidan retired from the business about three years ago, with another brother, Michael, also stepping back when he reached 65. <\/p>\n

So, what will he do with his own retirement? <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside Galway\u2019s oldest department store: \u2018We\u2019re not Brown Thomas and we don\u2019t want to be\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have time for myself, walk, play a little bit of golf, travel, travel a little bit to New Zealand [where his son lives] and stuff like that. Yeah, a nice easy quiet life if there is such a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also plans to learn more about Dublin while upping his step count.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that I really want to do is walking and to walk my city. During the pandemic we used get up very early in the morning drive the car down to, say, Hatch Street and we\u2019d wander for hours and the city was deserted. You could just wander around and see things you never saw because you never had time. I haven\u2019t given myself time; that\u2019s probably my greatest failing is that I don\u2019t make time. The shop always came first.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than 50 years serving the people of Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Jimmy Redmond of Redmonds off-licence is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12987,61,60,43,17328],"class_list":["post-635725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-6","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635725","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=635725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}