Famed Dublin pram shop that just won't lie down

TradeNames:Murphy's Pram and Nursery Store - virtually a lone trader on High Street near Christchurch for many years - has now moved to Rathcoole, writes Rose Doyle.

The Murphy family has been selling prams and cots to the people of Dublin for long enough to see the capital's fortunes rise and fall and rise again. They did business from a yellow-painted, landmark building by St Audeon's and Christchurch, went on trading as the demolition and regeneration of that part of town happened around them, became a lone survivor on High Street: solitary, significant and always yellow-painted until the times caught up with them.

They've survived to surface again. As with many of Dublin's older businesses, they've moved to a new building and community on the city's boundaries. "Only after we'd jumped through all the hoops," Philip Murphy explains, "done everything we could and decided it wasn't viable to stay in High Street. We did the research and decided on a new place."

Murphy's Pram and Nursery Store is now on Main Street, Rathcoole. Run by brothers Philip and Martin Murphy, their mother Patricia (Pat), who co-managed Murphys for 40 years, is a consultant along with their sister Ann-Marie, who co-managed Murphys for five years.

Before all this, for more than half of the 20th century - since Joe Murphy, from Millstreet, Cork, set up shop at 13 High Street in 1942 - Murphys were the people to go to for the best of prams and cots, for renowned value and service.

"My father always told us to be competitive in price," Philip says, "to give good value and treat the customer well." He tells the rest of the story, a gently determined young man of 26 who has decided that home is where the heart is and that his BCom and MBS knowledge are best applied to the family business.

Joseph Murphy left Millstreet when he was "16 or 17, came to Dublin for work and started as a wages clerk in an auctioneers in Dame Street. That lasted nine months, then a fire wiped the place out overnight. He opened a pram and cot shop at 13 High Street on December 8th, 1942." Philip is not sure why his father, a young man in his teens, decided to deal in prams and cots.

"They were war years. Materials for making prams and cots weren't available so he went to Belfast to get metal and rubber and wood. He assembled such as dolls' prams on the shop floor at night. He built up a good business, a good service to customers, working hard until he died in 1991; he was 74."

High Street in the 1940s, according to Joe Murphy, was "so narrow you could reach across and touch the other side". He sold Pedigree and Silver Cross prams, tall and wide, hard bodied and with chrome chassis, all in black and lined with PVC. Dolls' prams were the same, in miniature. Everything was hand-finished, a small steel emblem declaring they were "handmade in England". He bought from Irish manufacturers, too, when he could. Customers, Philip says, "ranged from the real Dublin people of the Liberties to people from the countryside - all around really".

All around included, in the mid-1990s, LA and actor Pearse Brosnan. "He drew up in a limousine, with his wife, bought a Mama's and Papa's Roma pram. It cost about £300 - very designerish, Italian and easy to use. Mia Farrow came by, too, and so did Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries for her baby stuff. Our customers," he's modestly proud, "have always ranged from the wealthy to middle-class Dubs to people with social welfare cheques. You never knew who was going to come in."

Joseph Murphy worked for a long time with just two, full-time seamstresses repairing damage to PVC. When prams became smaller and lighter, when the fabric changed to cotton, "the seamstresses unfortunately weren't needed any more", Philip says.

What goes around comes around, however, and Philip recently delivered a pram that one of the ex-seamstresses had bought for her daughter. "She remembered how nice my father was to work for," Philip says, "how she'd been to my parent's wedding and how they'd been to hers."

Building development forced Joe Murphy to move from 13 to 17 High Street. He got "married late", Philip says, in the early 1970s to Patricia Connolly after they met in the crowd gathered after a bomb went off in Burgh Quay in 1972. A civil servant, she had to leave her job when they got married but put her energy into the family business.

Philip explains how Murphy's yellow building came to stand alone on High Street for nearly 30 years.

"Most of High Street was knocked but, because of an administrative clerical error, my father was allowed to stay on. Ours was a four-storey building until they knocked off two stories. When everything had cleared we were the only building in High Street."

High Street was great fun. "We're a tight-knit family and we worked together well in the shop. Being a family business made things flexible. It meant we were able to do anything customers needed."

Working in the shop was also "a great eye-opener. The characters and people you met . . . I'll always thank my parents for helping me learn what life is really like for a lot of people, especially when making deliveries to places like Oliver Bond flats, where people had it hard." It's made him more grounded, he feels, given him an understanding "of where people are coming from".

There were dark moments too. Murphys was burgled several times. A would-be thief followed Joe Murphy home to Rathfarnham in the mid-1970s - only to be foiled by Joe's quick thinking.

Another thief at another time reversed a car into the front of the shop. Yet another hit Joe Murphy over the head with a crow bar - and was beaten off. There were the thieves who arrived with butcher knives and left empty handed.

"We had good relations with Kevin Street Garda station," Philip says, "they were always helpful."

Number 17 High Street had a vulnerable time through the 1990s, propped up by supports in the basement and on one side of the building. With time and more decay the only solution was to knock the building and rebuild.

December 2001 saw the beginning of what would become a five-year David and Goliath contest between the Murphys, their architect Adrian Powell (who had designed other buildings in the area), Dublin City Council and An Taisce. In a battle worthy of a film script, Murphys Prams and Cots, in the end and on appeal, won the right to rebuild on the site.

"Even so," Philip gently explains, "because of lack of parking and difficulties for pregnant mothers, we sold. Reluctantly."

That was in January 2006. Murphys had been closed for five years and Joe Murphy had died in 2001.

But Pat had by no means given up on the business, Anne-Marie Murphy had become extremely successful in the world of insurance, Martin Murphy had become a well regarded financial adviser and Philip had earned himself a BCom and MBA. The Murphys Prams and Cots story was far from over.

First, in June 2006, came the website - www.murphysprams.ie. Offering free nationwide delivery, a nationwide assembly service, car seat fitting service and much more, it was an instant success.

Then the Murphy brothers decided on a new shop. Much research led them to burgeoning Rathcoole and an opening before Christmas 2006.

"We've gone from strength to strength," Philip assures, "people are coming back, three and four generations of them, remembering my mother and father, glad we're here. It's nice to know there's customer loyalty."

They say he looks like his father. He certainly works like his father - about 72 hours a week at the moment. Murphys still sells Silver Cross - the Kensington coach-built pram, at €1,149, has pride of place in the window. Though too large for today's hallways, it sells "steadily enough". Murphys also sells every possible kind of baby chair, pram, cot, and car seat. They plan to do so for a long time to come.