*Marie and Kevin O’Brien outside The Corner House. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
MARIE and Kevin O’Brien’s decision to close The Corner House marks the end of an era in Kilrush.
Corner shops are now a thing of the past in the West Clare town after their decision to close after thirty seven years as a permanent fixture on Henry St in Kilrush serving generations in their shop where they were opened seven days a week.
Retirement is well earned for the married couple who first took charge of The Corner House on 6th April 1988 following in the footsteps of Rita McNamara and Nora O’Brien. They were open for eleven years before they were able to take some time off when they were treated to a weekend away in Paris.
In July when they were on holidays they decided the time had come and that they would close at the end of October but the intervening three months flew by in an instant. They reflected on almost four decades of business in Kilrush during an in-depth interview with The Clare Echo.
Turning the key of the shop for the last time after thirty seven years brought a mix of emotions. “It is good to retire because we were ready, we were very tired after a long number of years but it was sad because we will miss a lot of the people, we’ll miss the chats and the craic with people coming in and out, all the local people that supported us, the town supported us in an amazing way. Visitors when they would come to Kilkee always wanted to come to this shop with their children,” Marie outlined.
She admitted, “I said we’d go in October, it was a long way away then but it was October before we knew it and it was the last week, before it I wanted to go but I was very slow to accept it that we were going to change our life. We knew we were going but we had a lot to think about, I’m a worrier so I didn’t sleep for a couple of weeks thinking about it”.
Customers initially didn’t believe that the O’Briens would close the shop, Marie explained, “We started to tell people but some people didn’t believe us. Last year two places closed in town but they were bought after, the rumour goes around then that three or four more are closing down and people get sick of listening to it, people said we’re too young to close and we’re in our mid-seventies, we wanted to close, we have another house with a big garden and things to do. We will have two more small grand-children in January all going well, they decided to plan that for our retirement so we wouldn’t be idle, it is great and like a new life. We’re not sorry” and Kevin agreed, “Not a bit”.
Getting assistance and help to run the business stands out for Kevin as one of the biggest challenges in both the shop and his gas deliveries. Demands of the business took up a lot of time, Marie noted, “We never had time for ourselves, we were working together all day but we never had time for ourselves. Kevin was a part-time fireman too, I used to love when Christmas came, a lot of people didn’t have cars back then and I used to do toys back then, I’d be putting them away and people would be paying off for them. We always looked forward to going to mass on Christmas Eve because we were free on Christmas Day but we could be ready to go out the door and Kevin would get a call, it nearly always happened and it had to be done because it was always someone in need. There was a lot of shops on the street, Miniter’s a beautiful shop was just down the road and it closed, across the road was James Bolton”.
Closures have become common in Kilrush, “There was a lot of little supermarkets, we had fourteen or fifteen,” Kevin outlined, “this is the last of the small shops”. Marie agreed, “There was a lot in the town but they have gone. No one is taking them over, it is a pity, every town needs something, I miss the chats with people coming in and out. It is the end of an era, nobody wants to buy it as a shop yet, we have viewings but I don’t think it will open as a shop. I wished that someone would have kept the shop open but it is not possible”.
Offerings in the shop “all changed” over time, Marie recalled. “We took over from Rita (McNamara) who had a huge business of people on the books as they called it, people didn’t have as much money as they do now, very honest decent people, we continued the same thing, a lot wasn’t bagged, you were never finished. We’ve moved with the times, we don’t expect a person to come in with a shopping trolley, we have our customers passing by for fags, drinks and to say hello, they will pick up a bit of shopping and the streets from where they can walk, we have our customers, we had a great business, we didn’t close because the business was bad”.
On the finances, Kevin stated, “The profit margin in the grocery business isn’t great, it wouldn’t carry the shop, the fuel was very important”. On his deliveries, he travelled all over Kilrush, Kilkee, Doonbeg, Killimer and Knockerra.
People came into The Corner House for a lot more than their shopping, “Everything was discussed out there from farming to if something happened out the street, it was discussed out there,” Kevin stated. Views of a former colleague then came to mind for Marie, “Catherine worked with me for fourteen years, she used to say ‘we’re confidantes, psychologists, we’re everything you want in here, we’re agony aunts’ because of the things we’d be listening to, people’s troubles and happy times, the whole lot of it, that is what a small shop is, you go into a small shop and you can say things because you know the people, they will tell you what is happening in their life and where they are going”.
Booms, busts and a global pandemic were all withstood by Marie and Kevin when in business. “It didn’t bother us too much, it made no difference. We worked the whole time during COVID, never closed the door, I had two girls working with me at the time, they were fantastic and never took a day, they came in every morning and would you believe we never got it, there was a smell coming in the door because we were wiping Dettol across the place every morning, we wore our masks, we still have the covered up which my son built around us. We never closed and Kevin went out delivering every single day,” she said.
Providing a helping hand always were their four children, Stephen, Jean, Sharon and Claire. The spirit of enterprise is well and truly alive with Sharon running The Leisure Centre on Frances St. Their contribution prompts Marie to remember how Stephen at the age of fifteen “let us all go to Dublin for the day, he did the shop all on his own, I don’t know how he managed but he let us all go for the day, we went with the girls”.
Employees were central to their success, the duo acknowledged with Catherine (14 years), Brid (11 years) and Michelle (five years) among their longest-serving staff.
Married for nearly fifty four years, they live and work together but they also got great enjoyment from social dancing every weekend. “When Kevin retired from the Fire Brigade which is fifteen years ago, we started dancing. We’ve went everywhere dancing, Killarney, Galway and Ennis. We’ve met the most amazing people dancing, lovely people from all over Clare. We go to a club in Ennis, Dancing for Pleasure. We’ve made the closest friends from it and are still in contact with them, some of them didn’t make it out of COVID, some of them since have lost partners and they don’t come anymore, it is awful sad but the nicest and happiest times we ever had are dancing, we still go but it is different,” Marie said.
No longer having to get up at 6am to receive deliveries for the shop, Kevin is looking forward to getting to lie in till 8am. “Relax, did you ever hear that word,” is top of his priority list for retirement. Marie is looking further afield with her plans, “Lanzarote, my favourite place on earth, we never had more than week so we said the next time we go back we’ll have to stay longer”. Kevin added, “We have plenty of time to make plans”.
To help put their children through college, Marie took on a second job. “We really enjoyed our time, we worked very hard, I had a second job when they were starting college, I had a weekend job with Dawn Dairies and I collected the milk round in Kilrush, Kilkee, Labasheeda, Kildysart back into Ballyea and Clarecastle, I’d go into the cash and carry, get my stuff and come home, it was small money but it was a great bit for someone going to college thirty years ago”.
Another of their similarities is a strong work ethic. When asked how they will switch off in retirement, Kevin quipped while pointing to his head, “See the screw here”. Marie added, “Kevin said we’re taking the programme out, we will manage fine. A woman said to me a few weeks ago ‘the biggest divorce rates are when people retire’. We’re not talking about that” to which her husband agreed, “Definitely not”.
“We took it over because we hadn’t a choice really, we had four children who needed to be fed, Kevin lost his job after Glynn’s Milk closed down, we knew we had to do something, someone suggested this to us and Kevin jumped on it straight away but I was apprehensive but we did it, there was days we cried, days I thought I’d run away, days I thought we’d never make it, we had our house before we came in here and I wouldn’t let it go for anyone. All in all we had a good time here, we had very happy years here. People are nice, the kids are uplifting and we know kids from every direction in town, they are all lovely,” Marie concluded.
