Athboy clothes shop proves itself a long lasting outfit

TradeNames Built from scratch, McElhinney's of Athboy is now a midlands phenomenon, writes Rose Doyle

Athboy, on a sunny summer's day, is a place apart. Lazily busy and friendly, not a traffic jam in sight and, on Main Street, fine old stone buildings with the name McElhinney discreetly over the doors.

The name and the buildings are, in many ways, what Athboy is all about. The buildings go back to 1797 when they housed an Alms House and a Market House, the former built "for the support of 12 widows", the latter to sell local farm produce and give shelter to boxing contests and card games.

McElhinney Fashions of Athboy has been in business for 70 years now, its fine bridalwear and fashion shops an Athboy and midlands phenomenon, people travelling from the four corners of the land to fit themselves out there for milestone family events.

No one's ever disappointed. McElhinney Fashions of Athboy is where fashion, courtesy, choice, an alterations service, much good advice and even a decent cup of coffee come together under a couple of roofs.

Mary Sweeney (nee McElhinney) is the quiet, unassuming dynamo behind the growth and development of the stylish and dynamic McElhinney Fashions emporium. Getting her to talk about herself, and her role in things since the mid-1960s, is not easy.

In her office over the shop, a floor she shares with accounts and alterations, she would much rather talk about her mother, Molly (Mary) McElhinney, about her debt to the staff who work alongside her year upon year, about how her son, Neal, is always on hand, about the value of customers.

Inter alia she lets slip how she loves the business and its challenges, about the joy of getting clothes right for people and about the principles of good and personal service.

"My mother, Molly McElhinney, started the business 70 years ago," she begins. "She was a Callaghan and grew up in the family pub next door.

"She got interested in fashion through her own mother, who was born Mary Miggin on a farm at Ballinadrin and liked to make clothes. My mother worked day and night to build up this business; she really was before her time."

Before her time, too , when she wanted to open a coffee shop. This came to pass, though not in Molly McElhinney's lifetime.

"Twelve years ago we put a new front on the shop and a coffee shop at the back," Mary explains. "We called it after her so she's always here! I miss her."

Molly McElhinney died when she was only 73, in 1988, involved with the business to the end. Her beloved husband, George McElhinney, had died 12 years before.They had six children; Maurice (Mossie), Mary, Pat, Jack, Doreen and Louise.

"We were all reared in the shop she started the business in, just down from here, where my brother Pat has a men's clothing shop now. She paid £500 for it, which was a lot of money then, and turned it into a general drapers, selling women's, men's and children's clothes. There were four bedrooms and my mother used say 'I'd a parlour until you all came along!' She was something else, a great woman. Dad was a plumber. In 1972 we moved in here."

"Here" is the large and gracious main shop in the refurbished Alms House, founded in 1797 by John, fourth Earl of Darnley for the support of 12 widows and rebuilt in 1843 by the sixth Earl of Darnley, long "fallen into misuse" by the time it was purchased by Molly McElhinney in 1970.

The facade, carefully and wonderfully rebuilt of limestone, matches the facade of the bridal shop, a few doors down the street in what was once the town's Market House, also built in the 1790s.

Mary Sweeney remembers an Athboy of more recent vintage, 50 years ago "when there was no tarmac on the street and a fair day every Thursday when we used have Wellingtons hanging for sale outside the door. We used stay open until 10pm on Saturday night when there would be confessions and everyone would come to shop afterwards.

"Mammy started from nothing and left a lovely business. She worked hard and reared us at the same time. My father was great, always in the background, driving her to Dublin on buying trips."

Molly McElhinney was, her daughter says, tallish, always wore black and "very particular about her figure. She trusted every customer, and she was right."

Mary Sweeney started working in the business when she was 16. "Mammy sent me to serve my time in Bouchers, a general drapers in Arva, Cavan, but her best shop girl left and I came home after three months. There's an Indian restaurant now where Bouchers was. Mammy used get me to go through the (commercial) travellers' cases to pick out the best clothes. I developed an eye."

By the time she was 21 Mary Sweeney was the company's buyer.

"It's 40 years since I took over the buying. The changes, compared to when I was a child! We built up by word of mouth. I believe in giving customer service."

In the beginning Mary bought from Dorene and Cater Platt in Dublin - "all gone now. My brother, Pat, took over the men's clothing and in 1972, when we moved here, we concentrated on ladies.

"My brother, Mossie, went with me to Dusseldorf when I went to my first show there; he works in the stock room. It was a labour of love, going that first trip, though I was lost and Mossie had to march me up and down, up and down through the stands.

"It's no bother to me now, I know exactly what we can sell. I do have a real passion for clothes. I never wanted to do anything else. I think it's in your blood. I've a wonderful woman who works with me, Jacinta O'Farrell. She goes to London with me, and to Germany."

She remembers selling mini dresses, though not very many, and when "furs were very big and we did a lot. Then, after a while, you couldn't give them away. Power dressing came in in the 1980s and everything had to have padded shoulders. Separates have really taken over in the last few seasons which is good since a lot of us are pear-shaped."

McElhinney Fashions of Athboy employs 80 people, full and part-time, with a great deal of experience between them, Mary says. "We've a lot of girls between 18 and 30 years here; some left to have families and came back."

We head off for the shop floor, to meet, among others, Lily O'Brien on the customer desk. Lily has worked for McElhinney Fashions for 35 years now, knew Molly McElhinney and has many warm words for Mary.

So does everyone else when we met them in the shoe, hat, separates and fuller figure departments, in the department given over to the clothes of Canadian designer Joseph Ribkoff and in those selling Marcona designs and Basler.

Up a sweep of stairs, in a gallery floor between swathes of curtaining and the palest of gold couches, McElhinney Fashions sells special occasion clothes.

After that it's down the street to the bridal shop, run by Ann McKeown who has been "about 40 years" with McElhinney Fashions.

Raw silk is a favourite with brides, she says, in ivory with fur wraps for winter and in blood red for those with the courage. "Mary never takes credit for all the work she does," Ann says firmly. "It's lovely to have a boss like her."

Mary Sweeney and her husband, Niall (a Donegal man, retired teacher and now farmer), have two sons and two daughters. Aengus is an engineer, Mary a physiotherapist, Libby's a pharmacist and Neal, as well as running a mortgage company in Dunboyne is, his mother says, "very good and helps out a lot in the business. They say I'm like my mother as I get older; if I'm half as good as her I'll be all right. I love the business and would never retire. I'd miss it too much. As long as I'm able to, I'll go on."