IRELAND’S ONLY mobile barber is about to hang up his scissors after 20 years on the road.
Businessman Eamon Friel is about to retire, but he is adamant he wants to leave his salon in safe hands. The 62-year-old has cut hair across Co Donegal for the past two decades, but has now decided to take a back seat.
However, he wants to pass on the tradition to someone who will help cut the hair of people across Donegal, from Dungloe to Glenties.
Friel, who was born in Scotland to Donegal parents, moved to Ireland in 1978 after training as a barber in Glasgow.
He tried his hand at a number of jobs, including building, but always had a love for cutting hair.
It was while travelling across Donegal that he noticed a lack of barber shops in rural towns in the northwest. “I saw a real opening, and at first I thought I could rent a room here or there for a day, but that was difficult.
“I then thought I could get a trailer and put it on to the back of a car and tow it around, but I didn’t fancy the idea of towing a trailer.
“I then spotted a mobile bank doing the rounds and I knew that was the answer,” he said.
In 1991 Friel bought a Fiat Iveco, which was an old AIB mobile bank, and set about customising it to his own needs for the barber shop.
He has been travelling on certain days to various towns across Donegal, including Falcarragh, Gaoth Dobhair, Dungloe, Milford, Ramelton, Rathmullan and Glenties.
Despite enjoying a wonderfully rewarding career, the father of five from Milford admits that things didn’t get off to the best of starts. “I thought I would follow the farmers’ marts around the county and pull up outside the marts when farmers were waiting to buy and sell livestock. But it was a disaster. They just didn’t seem to be interested.”
He has encountered some protest from women after refusing to cut their hair. “I am a man’s barber and that is what I trained as. I have been called a male chauvinist because I don’t cut women’s hair, but that’s just how it is,” he said.
Friel has trimmed the locks of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who has a holiday home near Falcarragh. “I didn’t get into a big political conversation with him. We just stuck to the usual chat about the weather.”
Now as he prepares to hang up his razor and comb, Friel wants someone to take over his “run”.
“It’s a good business opportunity . . . It has provided a life for myself, my wife Sheila and our children.
“I would like to think that the van could do the same for someone else.”