Remember local businesses support community

WALKING though Dundalk on any day since the arrival of the second lockdown was very depressing.

Fewer numbers on the streets, boarded up shops, and a few hardy citizens huddled in doorways or under any shelter they could find to drink their coffee from the few takeaway outlets that were opened.

Not much will change in the next few weeks, and as the days get colder, there will be even fewer venturing out for the takeaway coffee.

Some traders, and few will blame them, are showing a good survival instinct, and some ingenuity, by advertising their stock online through their facebook page, and having purchases either delivered or collected.

Even that will only allow their businesses to tick over and keep themselves and one or two others in jobs.

At this stage some are hanging on by their fingertips, hoping, and perhaps praying, that they will be allowed open for Christmas.

Otherwise a number will not survive, and the town centre, like many others in the country, could be an even more desolate place come January.

All the more reason why we must all support our local businesses whenever they are allowed open.

Remember that these are the businesses that employ local people who live, work and play in the town.

Remember when table quizzes are fundraising events return these are the businesses that donate a spot prize or make a donation.

Remember when you are looking for a sponsor for a GAA team, soccer or rugby team, which door do you knock, certainly not Google or Amazon, but rather the trader down the street who has a connection with the club and will say yes to the request even though in truth he/she will get very little actual return for the sponsorship other than some goodwill.