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IT'S THE same in every town and city in Ireland, indeed throughout the so-called developed world: old shops and streetscapes have given way to the new, functional yet characterless. Donnybrook in south Dublin is a perfect example of this irreversible tide of transformation.

For many years, Furlong's newsagents on Morehampton Road, close to its junction with Marlborough Road, was an informal social club for the great and the good of Donnybrook. A small, narrow shop stocked with a vast array of newspapers and magazines, it was presided over for many years by Gerry Callanan, a fount of local information, always a mischievous twinkle in his eye. His family, too, including his wife, Máire, presided over the convivial proceedings.