Cork’s Quay Co-op celebrates 40 years battling prejudice and inequality

Garret FitzGerald and Charlie Haughey played musical chairs when it came to the office of taoiseach, Margaret Thatcher started the Falklands War, the Rolling Stones played Slane, Offaly denied Kerry the five-in-a-row, and in Cork, a group of activists opened a workers’ co-op that 40 years later is still going strong.

The year was 1982 and the co-op in question, the Quay Co-op, is to mark its 40th anniversary this coming week when its vegetarian restaurant, the first in Cork, hosts a special celebration for supporters and suppliers as well as many of the 750 people who have worked at the co-op since it first opened its doors.

Quay Co-Op co-founder Arthur Leahy recalled that the project began as a community co-operative during a time of growing unemployment in the early 1980s and soon became the home of Cork's first vegetarian restaurant and cafe, a food co-op, bookshop, women's centre and creche.

“I speak for all the Quay Co-op members when I say that we are hugely grateful to the people of Cork for their continued support, it means so much to us,” said Mr Leahy, as he recalled how the co-op became a base for many groups campaigning against prejudice and inequality.

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“Reaching this milestone anniversary is down to hard work, dedication and that spark of alternative creativity we see in the people that work here, come here and shop here. Our radical roots inform what we do to this day and make us proud of where we work and of what we’ve stood for [for] 40 years.”

He said the Quay Co-op had been at the forefront of social justice campaigns locally and nationally since its doors opened, campaigning for gay rights and women's rights and on environmental issues as its history mirrored the social and legislative progress in Ireland over the past 40 years.

Mr Leahy reckoned that more than 1 million people had passed through the doors of the Quay Co-op since it first opened in May 1982 and he pointed out that the co-op’s restaurant has served tens of thousands of vegetarian meals to both locals and visitors to Cork over the years.

‘New challenges’

“Today we face new challenges, none more so than ensuring that our future generations may respectfully enjoy this beautiful planet in peace,” said Mr Leahy, as he recalled how a team of volunteers helped to transform a neglected former pawnbrokers’ on Sullivan’s Quay into a hub for the co-op.

He said that the co-op had expanded over the years, and it now incorporates three buildings on Sullivan's Quay, overlooking the south channel of the Lee, including one building which was previously the Cork Fire Brigade headquarters. It continues to flourish and develop.

"The Quay Co-op today employs 50 people between its vegetarian deli, bakery, wholefoods store and restaurant on Sullivan's Quay, its vegetarian food-production facility on Cove Street and satellite stores in Carrigaline and Ballincollig, and continues to be owned by its members," he said.

Quay Co-op general manager Simon Tiptaft added: "Ireland was a very different place when we first opened – it was a time of rapidly rising unemployment, and many people didn't have a voice. Hundreds of people have worked here over the years, but many have stayed for decades.

“Our team and our members are so important to us. Our customers too are savvy forward-thinkers who continually spur us on to be better, to do more for the causes that will make a better future for us all.

“As a workers’ co-operative we have a unique view on trading – for us it is not about profit – if we can break even while supporting jobs and the causes that matter to us, that will do just fine for the next 40 years.”