Godfrey's Gospel: Tullow Street dying on its feet and I feel sorry for retailers

ONCE upon a time, there was a saying that a yard of counter was worth its weight in gold. If I ever needed convincing that was a load of rubbish, I got it in spades one day last week when I walked down Tullow Street.

Once hailed as the ‘main’ street of the town, all I could think of was how all former businesspeople who devoted their lives to giving good service to an appreciative public would turn in their graves if they saw the condition of the street.

I also felt sorry for those trying to stay in business or working there. It was depressing, to say the least.

Just to be clear – it was Tuesday, around 11am, and there may as well have been a curfew in place because there were very few people out and about. For once, we can’t blame the weather because it hadn’t rained, but you could feel the despair.

For starters, I had difficulty in finding a premises that was actually open. I counted nine that were permanently closed, a couple which looked like they will probably never open again, one which was in the process of emptying stock as it had gone into liquidation and another which had a big ‘For Sale’ sign plastered on the front of it.

Not a good start.

I say there were nine that I saw closed, but I have no doubt if I took a closer look, I would have found one or two more. This wasn’t a forensic examination; it was me looking around aghast at what I was seeing while remembering what the street used to be like.

As I walked along the street, the senses were hit by an awful smell from one doorway – someone obviously had too much to drink, or worse, because the stench from the contents of their stomach, stuck to the door, was enough to almost make me become another offender.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the smell coming from another nearby doorway was equally offending, but this time it was thanks to someone thinking it was okay to relieve themselves there.

Then there was a homeless person coughing up his guts on one of the public seats, making absolutely no attempt to contain the contents of whatever was coming out of his mouth around his person. He either never heard of putting his hand or arm up to his mouth or simply just wasn’t bothered.

I know there may be some of you who might pass comment at that remark, thinking I should show empathy to someone less fortunate than myself, but I really don’t care. In all honesty, I have a closed mind about that – and a few other things to boot. Thankfully, this is still a democracy. We all have our problems, but I don’t need to inherit an illness from someone who just isn’t bothered to adhere to proper behaviour.

Don’t get me wrong: I encountered a few very pleasant people working in a number of premises that morning and all I can do is applaud them for putting on a brave face. How they can muster up the energy to work there week in, week out is beyond me.

I relayed my thoughts on the experience to a friend of mine afterwards, and his reply was sharp and to the point: “It’s like a bombed-out street after a blitz,” he said. “Can you just imagine what it is like for people who are actually living in bombed-out towns and cities in Ukraine, Gaza and other parts of the Middle East?” 

When he put it like that, I thought I had little to complain about – we are lucky enough not to be living in those parts of the world – but it did not take away from the fact that the heart of Carlow town is dying and no-one with the power to do something about it is even attempting to fix the problem.

Before anyone starts jumping up and down about all the great work being done about cycle lanes or placing a few flower pots and so on around the town or, indeed, the great work being done by the organisers of the International Pan Celtic – who have to be singled out for their great work in trying to bring some life back into the town centre – I am talking about offering some type of initiative to people interested in creating much-needed jobs in the retail sector and converting and bringing back to life buildings which will never be shops again, but which would make ideal homes and apartments. This would solve some of the housing crisis and at the same time put a bit of life back into the town centre.

I know a number of owners who are genuinely interested in growing their business, but they tell me the amount of hidden taxes they have to pay make it a worthless exercise. At the end of the day, these are people who put their neck and bank accounts on the line, be it to either grow their business or convert buildings from businesses to rentable properties, and unless there is that dreadful word ‘profit’ in it for them, why should they bother?

Ask the majority of them what they hope to gain and they will say ‘a living – not a killing’, but at the moment they are getting neither.