Bargain retailer sticks to its principles in the Liberties

TradeNames: Frawley's of Thomas Street is a local landmark and part of life in the Liberties, writes Rose Doyle

The fact that Frawley's of Thomas Street is managed by a Monaghan man, and out of Frawley family hands for a while now, hasn't changed a thing about its place and role in the old heart of Liberties Dublin.

Frawley's is as imperturbably a core part of Thomas Street as it was when Cornelius and Bridget Frawley opened there in 1892, and as it was in 1911 when the census accounted for 15 people; family and workers; abiding in the house on the night of April 2nd. It's as famous today for bargains as it was in 1936 when men's boots cost 9/11, and slip and knicker sets cost 2/6d - or when my mother, in the 1960s, bought more towels and sheets than we needed because of that same "bargain" factor.

Not that manager Sean McEvoy would even entertain the notion of change. He's been in charge for 19 years now, loves the shop and the street and the area. "Thomas Street is steeped in real culture," he says. "I love it around here." He puts his time and energy where his mouth is, too, working with Dublin City Council and local groups to "get things done" for the locality. But more of that later.

Sitting in his first floor office, a room and floor that was once home to shop workers and their families, we take a look at the beginnings, at when Cornelius Frawley and his wife Bridget set up a drapery store that would sell bargains to the poor. The Frawleys had no children and, when their time came, willed the store to their nephew Cornelius Lee who ran it, in the manner always intended, until the 1960s.

"Cornelius Lee's two sons, Jimmy and Jack, came into the business," says Sean McEvoy "and continued the business. On their retirement in 1987 they sold the business. That's when we came in."

"We" is a company headed up by Pascal Taggart and John Clohisey who "bought the place in 1987 and continued it as before. I came on board then, too, coming into the company as MD for the retail end. There's a great amount of history attaching to the building. This room, when I came, was occupied by a couple - it had been their home for 50 years. The rooms over the shop had always been flats. One flat was home to a mother and father and 11 children. There was great poverty around here, but great community and togetherness too. The NCAD (National College of Art and Design), when it came, brought a cachet and vitality to the street. It still does."

The Frawleys, in the beginning, "choose an area where there was a dense population, a low income level and targeted their shop at certain needs. Their success was in giving value in children's ware and household goods."

Proving that things really do stay the same, he talks about Frawley's dockets.

"We operate a club system called Frawley's Club Account but which is known as Frawley's Dockets locally. It's the biggest thing up here and it's been going since the year dot. It works like this: 20 friends in the area put in €20 each weekly and one of them brings it in to Frawley's, for which they're given vouchers worth €400. These are distributed so that, if your little girl is making her communion, or some other need arises, you can get €200 worth of vouchers that week. The system has survived credit and laser cards and accounts for 60 per cent of our business. Clubs used to be operated by butchers and other shops in the area for Christmas but ours is a 12-month, year-round, non-stop club."

The 1911 Census form gives Cornelius (a draper, 60) as the head of the family, Bridget (draperess, 59) as his wife, Mollie Lee (teacher, 19) as a niece and Michael Frawley (draper's assistant, 20) as a cousin. All four were born in Co Limerick. Eleven others were listed as draper's assistant, or draperess, all living over the shop, aged between 16 and 29, all single and all Roman Catholic - as were the Frawley family.

Between the lot of them there were only two Dubs. Ellen Buckley, draperess, 28, and Michael Gallagher, draper's assistant, 16, came from Dublin - the others came from the four corners of the island.

A quarter of a century later, as the world and the Evening Herald looked on, stunned, at the abdication of England's King Edward V111 in December 1936, Frawley's urged customers to "buy your gifts at bargain prices". This meant girl's patent leather shoes for 6/6d, lady's navy napp coats for 17/11, floor oilcloth for 2/3d a yard, and dungarees for 1/11d. The Evening Herald, not to be upstaged by a full page ad, recorded in detail the "march of events since king came to throne".

Sean McEvoy tells how, when Frawley's celebrated its centenary in 1992, "the street had to be closed off. We put out food and drink and people danced in the street. Liam Hayden, who's worked here for 36 years, wrote a poem, A Toast to Frawley's."

Hayden's poem, all five verses, celebrates the store, telling how "Con Frawley had an ambition/To open a store that would serve the poor/And thus started a Frawley's tradition" to hailing it as "the value centre of the Liberties/As the bells of John's Lane ring out gaily".

Sean McEvoy adds that "our friends, the Augustinians, have a great presence in the area. Every year, in Easter week, mass is said on the shop floor. I introduced that when I came here. We've staff here for 40-45 years. One man retired after 46 years' service: the average stay is 30 years. We employ about 45, part-time and full-time. We've still got a serious element of traditional, one-to-one retail service. That's always stayed the same in Frawley's, through all the changes in ownership. We're at the centre of a tourist trail up here. Everyone who comes to town comes to Thomas Street. They take in the Guinness Storehouse and Kilmainham Jail too, then usually take in the Phoenix Park and our lady President. But this is the centre of the tourist trade!"

And so he comes to talk about trade changing. "People emigrate from here to places like Clondalkin and Tallaght and Lucan but, fortunately for us, this is their city centre and they come back here all the time to shop. What's happening now is that a whole new generation is moving into the area. They might not even have their roots in Dublin and they're bringing a whole lot of new needs to the area. Some are new-Irish; we've a Russian deli in Meath Street and Chinese food stores and hairdressers. The Digital Hub is back on track and will do for this area what the IFSC did for the docklands."

His involvement with the area means that, "not only have I a business to run but I'm involved in trying to get things done. I meet with the City Council, who are committed to this area, and are backing the 'Thomas Street is Happening' event, kicking off on June 9th, headed up by Michael Stubbs. It will give the area something to come to alive to and go on until June 18th."

For the future, he hopes Frawley's "will go on. In 1996 we expanded the business, adding on 6,500sq ft of retail space when we acquired some open space beside us. Altogether we've 22,000sq ft between numbers 34 and 36.

"But we'll have to continually adapt to the changes taking place. As we become a different people it'll be up to us to respond to the needs of the different people in the area."

Frawley's is open six days a week, from 9am to 5.30pm daily. Sean McEvoy says again how he "loves it! It's a part of me now."