Siopa Uí Dhuinnín’s forty years’ service marked by community
THE present is the strangest time over four decades that Frank and Eibhlín Ó Duinnín have been running their shop in Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh in the Múscraí Gaeltacht.
Eibhlín Uí Dhuinnín and her husband set up shop in the Gaeltacht village forty years ago and last Friday their service to the community was marked with a celebratory cake and gifts and an appearance on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Saol Ó Dheas radio chat show, all within the Government’s social distancing restrictions.
“We were taken completely by surprise by what happened,” said Eibhlín. “And we’re really grateful to all who organised it.”
She recalled when she and Frank first got offered the opportunity back in 1980. At the time Frank was working in Ballymakeera while she was also working in the village’s knitwear factory.
“We got a call from Diarmuid Mac Mathúna and we discussed it for a couple of days before deciding we’d take a chance on it.”
When they took over the shop, it was across the road from the current premises which was, at that time, the site of the village’s Boys National School.
At the time there was only one other shop in the village, Siopa Uí Chorcora, but that has closed since. In its heyday there were another two shops in Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh as well as the original Quills store.
Within two years that site was available and by then Frank and Eibhlín had decided to carry on with the shop after what they regarded as a trial period.
“In those early years there was a lot of work – putting a price on every single item in the shop – now the till takes care of all of that,” said Eibhlín. “Now there’s a vastly increased range of goods with more dairy products for instance.
“Back then there was no such thing as packaged ham – we had to slice it as well as corned beef and pork and onion roll.”
In 2010 the local post office closed and despite a campaign by the community, An Post dictated that it would not reopen. Instead Frank and Eibhlín’s shop was designated as an agency for An Post, offering a limited range of services to the local community.
In the current COVID-19 climate, the shop, which is normally a hive of activity, has been fitted and equipped to make shopping as safe as possible for the community.
“After the first few weeks when there was a sense of fear, people have grown accustomed to the restrictions and they’re really very good in the way the observe the social distancing and so on.
“We seem to spend the whole day cleaning the shop – but it’s what has to be done.”
Asked whether they would hold their own celebration after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted to mark their auspicious anniversary in the shop, Eibhlín said: “Sure everybody will be wanting to hold a party then!”