Living over the shop: Dooley’s was more than just a fruit shop
Paddy and Mary Dooley
THIS week we recall a much-loved fruit shop which, although closed since 1991, lives on in the memory of Carlovians as a hub of activity where fruit, sweets, magazines and conversation could all be had in abundance. Many will remember that the largest Easter egg in Carlow could be found in Dooley’s window – a huge milk chocolate creation decorated with icing. Although this item was bought for advertising purposes, it was always sold, according to Pádraig Dooley, at the last minute, to a young man who was eager to impress his loved one despite the fact that it cost the equivalent of a week’s wages!
Padraig’s mother Mary Dooley opened the fruit shop at 62, Tullow Street, Carlow in 1955, the year she and her husband Paddy married. She had previously worked in The Bon Bon café at the other end of Tullow Street, beside Tully’s Travel Agency. Paddy had been running a fruit wholesale business since 1947, sourcing fruit in the Dublin markets and distributing it throughout the county. During the war years, fruits such as bananas and oranges from other countries couldn’t be got, so after 1945 people were delighted to be able to access them again. Paddy was assisted in his wholesale business by his brother Michael.
Dooley’s fruit shop was much more than its name suggested. While there was a vast selection of fruit displayed in such a creative manner that Mary won several prestigious prizes, including becoming an honorary member of the Jaffa Club by the Citrus Marketing Board of Israel, it was also a local meeting place with a predictable rhythm to each day. In the mornings, people called in for the English newspapers (the Irish ones were sold by Mary Kelly up the street). There was a stool outside the counter where customers would sit and have a chat before moving on. Then, at 11o’clock, workers from Doyle’s of the Shamrock, Dempsey’s hardware and Lawler’s butchers would come over for a mineral and snack, also staying for a chat, which is how Jean Hynes, the shop assistant, met her husband!
Since the Sacred Heart Hospital was just around the corner in Barrack Street at the time, some of the afternoon customers were elderly ladies, who came around to Dooley’s with a list of ‘messages’ for the other patients. But the evening was when the shop really came alive, especially if a good film was being screened in the Coliseum. On their way to the cinema, everybody popped in to Dooley’s for sweets, which were displayed in 60 sloped glass jars and weighed in ounces. Padraig remembers that when the film was on, the queue went from the cinema, past their shop and down as far as Reddy’s! Other popular items were loose biscuits, Carroll’s No 1 cigarettes and John Player Blue.
Among the regulars who called in for a chat in the evenings were Dessie Moore from Tinryland and Ciss Carpenter. Paddy Dooley would join them for the last hour of the evening before he and Mary would walk home to St Killian’s Crescent at 10pm each night. A notable customer was a man known as ‘The Cowboy Whelan’, a colourful character who wore a Stetson and spurs and drove a large, American-style car with bull horns on the front. His home in Bennekerry had ranch-style gates and he called in weekly to Dooley’s for a box of Hamlet cigars and a western magazine.
Christmas and Easter were extremely busy in Dooley’s. Mary was famous for her fruit hampers, which were assembled upstairs over the shop on what was always known as ‘Dev’s table’. The table had belonged to Ryans next door, Mick and Bea, who had taken part in the War of Independence and the Civil War. Proud republicans, they hosted Éamon de Valera on many occasions, and he had tea at the Ryans’ table, which was given to the Dooleys on their death. They also gave a flag made by Cumann na mBan members who were incarcerated in Kilmainham Jail. The flag has since been returned to Kilmainham, where it flies proudly.
As well as fruit and sweets, there was a magazine and newspaper section in Dooley’s. At that time, everyone on Tullow Street went in and out of each other’s shops and there was a silent agreement not to take another person’s business. Therefore, Dooley’s only began selling English papers when Bridie Mayer, who had another newsagency down the street, died. They also sold Mills and Boon novels, comics and westerns and ran what was known as an Argus library, where new, hard-backed books could be borrowed for a penny a week.
It was all hands on deck for Mary Dooley’s four children at Christmas and Easter. Margaret, Pádraig, Gerard and Thérèse remember having paper cuts from making bows for the hampers. They were also adept at using the ‘pinking shears’, which was used to cut zig-zag shapes with crêpe paper to decorate the edge of the windows.
On Christmas Eve, people would dash in at the last minute to get a box of chocolates for someone they had forgotten, and just before closing time, one of the Dooley children was sent down to the Café Roma for chips to sustain the family after a long day’s work. Then the turkey had to be collected (once forgotten by Padraig!) and the rush was over.
The three convents in the town – Presentation, Mercy and Poor Clares – all had accounts in Dooley’s. For feast days and special occasions, a large order for fruit and occasionally chocolate for one of the convents would come in. People also left in money for the Poor Clares and Mary would make sure that the nuns got goods to the value of it. She herself had a great belief in the prayers of the Poor Clares and wrote to them whenever there was trouble of any kind.
Mary Dooley retired aged 60, her husband Paddy having died in 1980. But rather than relaxing at home, she took to the adventure of foreign travel, first visiting her daughter Thérèse in Zimbabwe. She lived to the age of 83 and enjoyed lots of foreign holidays in the intervening years.
