*Photograph: James Treacy
ONE OF EAST CLARE’s most prominent service stations closed suddenly on Friday and has entered receivership.
Staff at Niland’s Gala Store and 24/7 service station in Tuamgraney were left in shock shortly after 3:30pm on Friday afternoon when they were informed that the shop was closing with immediate effect.
Customers who were entering the premises at the time were asked to leave and told that the shop was shutting.
Security fencing has been erected across front of the shop with locks placed on the doors, a security team has been on the premises moving stock from the shop.
Originally opened in the 1980s by Tommy Bleach, it was ran by the Bleach family until the 1990s when it was sold to A&M retail stores.
Galway based husband and wife, Mike and Amie Niland have owned the store for eleven years. At its peak, it employed 22 people with a sit-down area for takeaway dinners, a service station, grocery store and off licence.
Correspondence obtained by The Clare Echo which was issued to staff by management detailed that Pepper Finance Ireland had appointed a receiver for the shop and premises. “We are in consultation with our legal team to challenge this appropriation of our store. At this stage we cannot further comment or say anything that would infringe on further proceedings”.
Staff have been told they will be paid up to the week ending Sunday 17th September but beyond this no guarantees have been issued.
Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) told The Clare Echo, “Staff have been treated appallingly in the manner in which the closure took place on Friday afternoon. I was shocked to pass by soon thereafter and see it closed as it was usually open and lit up 24/7”.
Scariff native McNamara claimed that staff were not contacted until Monday “by their now former employers. Many of the twelve full time and ten part-time staff will be entitled to redundancy but that application must be made to the receiver and they have not yet been informed who the receiver is, much less informed of their rights”.
Cathal Crowe TD (FF) on Tuesday met with “workers who got the devastating news on Friday that their work was no more and that the shop was closing”.
Deputy Crowe added, “This is awful for staff who have given service to the shop, they have been the friendly face of the community, I’d often pop in there when travelling through East Clare, I’m helping workers with what happens next through social welfare and redundancies. Two weeks ago we had the Iceland workers, there is an awful lot to be said for when things are going belly up in a company there is a huge amount to be said for communicating effectively even if it is bad news. I would take the view that for someone who has given years of service that a text message just doesn’t cut it, you have to face up to people and say ‘we have problems’, call me old fashioned but that is how I think it should be communicated”.
Locals in Tuamgraney and Scariff have said the closure has come as “an awful shock to the place”. “It was always busy, you can already see it in Scariff which is getting very busy since the closure,” one East Clare local stated.
“It is a big shock to the local people, it was open 24/7 and was very convenient,” one man admitted.
In the past there were over fourteen shops in Scariff and Tuamgraney, Niland’s closure has brought the figure down two with Gleeson’s on Church Street and Rodgers’ Centra in the Square in Scariff the only remaining outlets.
