Nolan’ s shop closes for the last time

July 1997

Nolan’s shop, the Main Street hang-out for rock ‘n’ roll kids of Wexford town of the sixties, has finally ceased trading.

Last week, owner Willie Nolan closed the doors on the business, which he and his wife ran for many years and which holds many memories for generations of Wexford people.

Down through the years, the red and white facade of Nolan’s shop on the corner of Allen Street became synonymous with the teenage generation, which drank minerals from the soda fountain and spent their last sixpence on the juke box.

Sadly, now there are curtains on the windows and the big jars of bullseyes and apple drops are no more.

Going back to the sixties, Nolan’s was run along the same lines as the traditional American drugstore. The teddy boys hung out there, and their girlfriends giggled over ice cream sundaes with raspberry cordial.

The main attraction was, of course, the juke box, which blared out the latest rock’n’roll numbers from morning until night.

Later, the boys would take off their jackets and get down to a game of table soccer, or would purchase a bag of hard-boiled sweets to take home.

For many parents, Nolan’s was the place that they warned their daughters to stay away from, mainly because of the large number of teenage boys puffing cigarettes outside.

However, try as they might, Nolan’s attracted youngsters like a honeypot attracts bees.

It continued to be popular in the 70s and early 80s, but Nolan’s heyday was undoubtedly the rock and rollin’ sixties.

Nevertheless, it continued to trade right up until Friday last, selling sweets out of big jars and other containers. It never lost that sixties feel, and stepping through its doors was like making a quantum leap back in time to the days of ‘Grease’ and ‘West Side Story’.

Nolan’s was undoubtedly a Wexford institution. Many will be sad to see it go.