Tom Bellew was serving Dunleer for decades!
SERVING customers of the Matthews drapery establishment in Dunleer for the past 65 years, is the extraordinary record of Mr. Tom Bellew, who. in a week’s time, celebrates his 80th birthday.
The devastating first World War was but a year in progress, and the country was still some seven years off achieving independence when the young Tom Bellew a native of Paughanstown district, put aside his school books to serve his apprenticeship with the late Mr. Thomas Matthews, founder of the Dunleer drapery centre, which in those days was a much less imposing place than at present.
That momentous 1915 decsion of Tom’s — one which was to shape the whole course of his life — came about as a result of a school essay.
Having expressed a desire to learn the rudiments of the drapery trade, he was sent by his Philipstown teacher to see Mr. Matthews, and in due course started off on the bottom rung at a shilling a week.
Today, and as he has been for several years, he is a director of the now styled Thomas Matthews (Dunleer) Ltd., and principal buyer.
As active and mentally alert as many only half his age - he works the same hours as others on the staff. With a twinkle in his eye, he recalls when the hours extended from 8.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m., Monday to Saturday, with no half-day. ‘A great change has come over the drapery scene since those far off days,” he says.
“Off the peg, ready to wear suits, were unheard of, and customers were then mainly in search of bargains in suit lengths. The material was principally frieze, made from native wool,” and the colours? —”’ Well, like the early Henry Ford cars you could get any type, provided it was black”.
Under the able direction of Mr. A. F Matthews—son of the founder, and who died in ‘75 — the Dunleer firm expanded considerably staging a great revival after a calamitous Christmas Eve fire in 1961. For a time this meant a shift in trading activities to a then unoccupied corner store which has since been taken over by Torris Bros.,as a Value Centre Super-Mart.
A Peace Commissioner, a keen gardener, and a once active member of the now defunct Dunleer Development Association, Tom Bellew lives with his wife, Elizabeth and daughter, Eunice, a local school teacher at Church View. Another daughter. Anne, is a secretary in Dublin, and Pat. a married son who is on the staff of Ecco Ltd. . Dundalk, lives in Bellurgan.