On Monday morning, inside Fogarty’s shop in Thurles, Co Tipperary, Gerard Fogarty was bagging up the last of the convenience store’s stock of penny sweets.
“It’s bittersweet,” he says, leaning on the counter of his family’s Parnell Street shop. On the shelves behind, the store’s supply of everyday staples – tea, shampoo, copybooks, marrowfat peas, the likes – is thinning out. After almost 70 years in business Fogarty’s is closing.
Last week, the Tipperary Star called it an “end of an era”. The era began in 1956 when the late Tommy Fogarty, Gerard’s father, established the business. The Fogarty family matriarch, Josie, took ownership of the shop on the death of her husband in 1996, and has given over 50 years of service. “It’s Mam’s love, so we always backed her,” Mr Fogarty says.
Josie, now well into her 70s, was still putting in 14-hour shifts behind the counter in recent times. “It was her livelihood. She’d get up in the morning at 7am, and close the shop at 10pm and go to bed.”
On Monday, however, Josie is absent from the shop that she is synonymous with. People swing open the door, asking for her, carrying flowers and cards with well wishes. On the counter an open notebook invites those calling in to leave messages.
Josie is in hospital, Mr Fogarty says, recovering from recent ailments that have taken her away from the shop counter. Ultimately, it was these health complications that led to her decision to close the shop. “When she decided she wasn’t in a position to come back behind the counter we said we’d keep going for a few months [before closing],” Mr Fogarty says.
Mr Fogarty (34), along with his five siblings, was born and raised on Parnell Street. In the days of Féile, the music festival held in Thurles during the 1990s, punters would call into the shop in their droves as they made the walk out to Semple Stadium. “I remember the crowds,” he says.
Shopping habits have changed since the days that Iggy Pop, Van Morrison and Happy Mondays were playing in Thurles. There was a time when Fogarty’s was the go-to for “the weekly shop”, but as chain supermarkets proliferated the shop’s role changed.
Fifty-cent bags of sweets have been enduring in their popularity, however. Conor Mahony (12), a grandson of Josie’s, helped in the shop during the after-school rush, when schoolchildren crammed inside to nab something nice for the way home. He’ll miss the shop, he says, standing at the counter. “I love helping out at the shop, and there’s a lot of people coming in being really nice and talkative.”
Outside, by the blue-and-yellow shopfront, a troop of teenage boys are chewing on some penny sweets. They always call into Fogarty’s after school, just like their parents before them. “We’ll have nowhere to go now.”
Although it could be a sad occasion Mr Fogarty says that Fogarty’s is “closing on a high”. As part of a closing-down charity appeal they’ve raised over €1,000 for the Hospital of the Assumption in Thurles. “We’ve got a loyal customer base which we love and will miss, but it’s time to close,” Mr Fogarty says. “Every business has its time.”
