Rathmines dry goods store ages well into off-licence

TRADE NAMES:Deveney's has been at the heart of village life in Rathmines for almost a century

YOU COULD be forgiven for thinking Deveney's of Rathmines is simply a good off-licence. Could be forgiven, too, for thinking of Rathmines itself as an inner-Dublin suburb.

The reality, in fact and in practice, is that Deveney's is a core and surviving part of a Dublin village, a store that has changed and adapted with the neighbourhood to become a one-stop archive of the changes there since 1909.

Rathmines, at its lively heart, is still the village it used to be and Deveney's, even to the street outside, a place to meet and get personal service. It's easy to imagine it not being a lot different when Michael and Catherine Deveney set up shop at 16 Upper Rathmines Road in 1909. Theirs was a forage store, selling dry goods, crushed barley, white oats for hens, fuel, groceries, etc.

Today's business is in the diligent hands of grandson Martin Deveney-O'Callaghan and daughter Niamh, third and fourth generation Deveneys who're as intrinsically part of Rathmines as Michael and Catherine were, as Rosie Deveney and her sister Maisie were after them. They tell the Deveney story with a great many laughs at the memories.

Catherine and Michael Deveney reared their nine children in the four-bedroom living quarters over the shop. They all, in what were hard times, did well. Hard work was a Deveney ethic then as now and first born Rosanna (aka Rosie) the one who, in time, took over the business.

Thomas came after Rosie and became a priest; Mike opened an off-licence in Harolds Cross; Joseph opened grocery shops; Ned went on to sell coal and fuel and so did Barney; Malachy opened a Deveneys in Rathgar; Maisie (apart from becoming mother to Martin and granny to Niamh) helped Mike in his off-licence; and Kathleen worked in the Rathmines shop.

Their parents died sadly young.

"First Catherine and then Michael, who died in the Stella picture house of a heart attack," Martin recalls. "Rosie took over rearing the family and running the business." She also became an institution in Rathmines.

"She was brilliant," Niamh says, "I would work Saturday mornings and if I was a minute late she'd be out on the pavement with her walking stick accosting customers, getting them to pull up the shutters with her. She was a great business woman, taught Dad everything he knows!"

Martin credits his aunt too. "Rosie developed the shop into a general grocers and fuel depot. She'd great stories to tell about the Black 'n Tans, about day trips to Stepaside, a big journey then, about the well created by the Swan river under the shop and how an uncle fell into it. We covered it over."

Maisie Deveney married Alban O'Callaghan from Newry and went to live in Terenure. Her husband died and, two years later in 1969 with children Martin and Ann, she returned to share the Rathmines family home with Rosie.

"I was 17 when we came back to Rathmines," Martin recalls, "Ann a few years younger. I left school because I'd the opportunity to work in the shop, knew and liked the business." A great chortle precedes memories of early 1970s Rathmines. "The fun and craic was great in those days. We used meet in Paddy's coffee shop or have pints of porter in Slatterys upstairs when times were good. Rathmines was a vibrant, lively, entertaining place. On Saturday nights, because of working in the shop, I'd be invited to all the parties. So many of the old Rathmines shops have closed since - H Williams supermarket, Kevin O'Gorman grocery and fresh foods, Lee's for household goods, Meehans Butchers, Wolfman Jacks Restaurant, Cashman's Chemist, Lynch's Off-Licence, McDonald Butchers. All gone. Living with Rosie and Maisie, too, was like having two mothers! They'd a lovingly combative relationship and I was the mediator."

He used go to the Corporation fruit markets: "Load-up cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, flowers, I sold the lot." He would help carry 10-stone bags of coal up stairs to flats, too - "to some of Barney's deliveries. That'd open your lungs!"

He "got into the wine business" in 1974 when he got a restaurant wine licence. "We used have to cover the wines at a certain hour so I'd pull a curtain over them. Everyone else was closing at 6pm but we'd open at 9am and stay open till 12.30am. We sold rashers, puddings, T-bone and sirloin steaks and wine. We did great business. In 1976 I took over and redeveloped the shop, put in a deli as well as the groceries, veg and wine. In 1978, with the advent of the supermarket in Rathmines and because holidays in Spain had opened the Irish market to wines, I felt the time was nigh to redevelop. I added the off-licence and totally renovated the place."

By now, too, he'd more than a little help. "I'd married my beautiful wife Philomena (aka Phil) in 1975. She's from Donegal, had been a nurse and used come in for her groceries and Club Milks. She would ask me where the best places were to go at night and I kept bumping into her everywhere I went..." He roars with laughter.

Niamh, their first born, arrived almost a year to the day after they wed and trained as a psychologist before joining the business in 1999. Their son Niall, second in the family and an electrician, died in a tragic accident in 2000. Emer is a primary teacher, Grainne an assistant bank manager and Sinead - "Sin e, the end, Phil said when we had her!" - is a nurse. "I'm still surrounded by women," says Martin.

Rosie Deveney, "a part of Rathmines for years and still here" Martin says, died in 1990 aged 94. Father and daughter cannot pay tribute enough to the woman who kept the business going for years. To Niamh's siblings too, "always doing their bit to help", and to Phil who, despite her own job, is "always there".

Niamh's passion is wine. She spent a year helping run a wine bar in Chicago (a city she loved) came home to pursue courses run by The Wine Development Board and got their Wine Spirits Education Trust diploma in 2006. "That opened lots of doors," she says. "I teach wine appreciation courses in Rathmines College of Commerce, which I love." She also, in spite of long working days in Deveneys, runs wine tastings on the last Thursday of each month in the Ocean Bar on Grand Canal Dock.

Mother Phil gives practical help with these events and partner Mark's on hand with "techie help" as well as "great support. I've become very nerdy about it all," she laughs, "into vitriculture and heavily involved with NOFFLA (National Off-Licence Association). I've even been invited onto the executive."

Martin says old world wines from France, Spain, etc, have reclaimed their place in the market from new world wines from California and Australia. "Spanish wines are our passion here," he says.

"With plenty of new wines and beers coming onto the market to keep us enthused. We're here to stay. It's time for the independents to fight back! We're lucky because we're ahead. Rathmines is a village, we look after the church, school, businesses, give personal service."

Father and daughter unite in fulsome thanks to their customers, "past, present and to come". Niamh's favourite wine is red, full-bodied and from Spain's Ribero Del Duero region. You can e-mail her at deveneysrathmines@gmail.com.