{"id":1858,"date":"2025-08-16T07:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T07:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/1858\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T07:26:08","slug":"there-are-not-many-of-us-who-live-on-the-street-now-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/1858\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There are not many of us who live on the street now\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eileen O\u2019Rourke is the chief executive of Carlow Tourism<\/a>, which is based in the same building as the local museum: itself a former Presentation convent right in the middle of the town. She has lived in the town for 28 years. Over time, she has seen various changes in Carlow<\/a>, a town with a population of 27,351 in the 2022 census. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe this is reflective of all towns in Ireland, but what I would have seen most of all is a sense of pride in the upkeep and presentation of the town,\u201d she says. Before moving to Carlow, O\u2019Rourke had been working in Germany<\/a> for some years. The contrast was initially a shock. \u201cCarlow was maybe not the cleanest town in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does she think that \u201ccounty town\u201d still has a meaning, as it applies to Carlow?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes I do. The county town is the hub of a county and where you expect to find employment, facilities, all of which allow people to still live in their own county. But I\u2019d love to see more of people living over the shop in the town centre, because I don\u2019t think there\u2019s too much of that left in Carlow now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus McCormack is the director of McCormack\u2019s estate agency on Tullow Street, where he has worked for 28 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the days of people living in town centres, whether they are county towns or not, are gone,\u201d he says. \u201cThe town centres are now places of temporary accommodation rather than homes: investors would be buying apartments for rental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are county towns still relevant in Ireland in 2025, I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport is the new boundary,\u201d he says. \u201cThe GAA<\/a> clubs are very strong in Carlow town, but in the smaller rural towns, the GAA is the town, and the smaller towns cling to their one club. The pub culture is now declining, and sports clubs are increasing. Rather than going for a pint, young people are now going training. Things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0This county town is the home of Fab Vinnie, tortilla chips and novelist Laurence SterneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

What do McCormack\u2019s buyers want from housing today?<\/p>\n

\u201cEfficiency has become a very important part of the demand. People want modern, efficient houses, not old houses to do up. The days of the do-er upper in town centre are really gone. The cost of renovation is very difficult to take on, and demand is modest enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ConalConal O’Boyle, editor of The Nationalist, with reporters Marie Boran and Elizabeth Lee, at their office in Carlow town. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

A decade ago, a three-bed semi in Carlow town cost \u20ac225,000. It now costs \u20ac325,000. A one-bed apartment in the town is \u20ac165,000. Houses remain more popular choices than apartments, but he sees very few mortgage applications for houses that are not joint: the price of a house is much more difficult for a single applicant to afford. \u201cSingle applicants are between five and 10 per cent of our entire business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never heard anyone calling Carlow a county town,\u201d reflects Conal O\u2019Boyle, editor of the weekly Carlow Nationalist. The paper was founded in 1883, and its office at Hanover Road is the same as newsrooms everywhere: stacks of papers scattered around, a phone ringing, and the intangible sense of deadlines in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of what a town in Ireland is, let alone a county town, has changed so much,\u201d says reporter Marie Boran. \u201cFor instance, there is no need any more to come into a county town to do your shopping. Nearly every small town has an Aldi or a Lidl now. I personally have no loyalty to any county when it come to shopping. Carlow doesn\u2019t have a TKMaxx, there is no sushi restaurant, there is only a small Boots …\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTullow Street used to be the main shopping street in Carlow, but it maybe doesn\u2019t have the same attraction for shoppers now that it once had,\u201d says O\u2019Boyle.<\/p>\n

\n

Everyone knew everyone else in those days; they all lived over the shops, apart from the big shopkeepers<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Betty O\u2019Gorman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He mentions that the street is pedestrianised at the weekend, and there is a conversation about the pros and cons of this for local shoppers. <\/p>\n

Boran\u2019s take on the pedestrianisation is that: \u201cConsumers have got so used to parking where they shop. If people could, they would drive up to the cash register. Consumers have become so lazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting out a weekly newspaper to the county, they have an excellent insight into what engages their readers when it comes to local news and their county town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the small stuff,\u201d says reporter Elizabeth Lee. \u201cLocal businesses, local achievements. Stories about Carlow town do the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of local pride in the town, because it is so small,\u201d O\u2019Boyle says. \u201cHyper local news does well. Stories from the district court. Sports. But in terms of the town itself, imagination is needed now for its future development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Dublin Street, there are a lot of artisan shops there, but they are opening and closing all the time,\u201d says Boran.<\/p>\n

Dublin Street is one of Carlow\u2019s oldest and most historic streets. It contains the bones of once-grand and large Georgian houses, and was clearly impressive architecturally in the past. It still is a remarkable street, even though some of the buildings are now unoccupied or derelict, awaiting a kind of new lives. There are some landmark buildings on the street, including the Old Assembly Rooms.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Assembly Rooms on Dublin Street, Carlow town. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill<\/p>\n

This building dates from the later 18th century, and as the name suggests, was constructed as a place for social gatherings. Dinners, dances, lectures and concerts were held here. The building was inherited by playwright George Bernard Shaw in 1899 from a family member. Shaw subsequently gave it to the people of Carlow town. <\/p>\n

One person who still lives on Dublin Street is Betty O\u2019Gorman (89), who is from a third-generation Carlow family. She ran the restaurant Beams and a wine and cheese delicatessen at a premises on the street with her late husband Peter for many years. She continues to live over the former restaurant. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a coaching inn, as far back as 1766,\u201d she says. \u201cIt must be nearly 50 years ago that we opened the first deli in Carlow, The Wine Tavern. We sold smoked salmon from Flanagan in Waterford, and wheels of Wexford cheddar cheese and wine. We supplied pubs and restaurants in Dublin with wine, including Patrick Guilbaud.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman was born on Montgomery Street in the town, just off Dublin Street. We are talking over tea in the Seven Oaks Hotel. Part of the hotel was originally a house called Greenbank, which O\u2019Gorman remembers. \u201cMiss Molly used to be upstairs playing her harp. My mother used to send us to buy apples from the gardener of the house,\u201d she recalls. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman also remembers when the sugar beet factory was in production. \u201cIt was the first real industry in Carlow, and it made the town because there was very little employment then. Men worked shifts in the factory. I\u2019d be reading in bed and I\u2019d hear them coming off the midnight shift: what sounded like hundreds of bikes going past my window.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DeclanDeclan McDonald outside his menswear shop, Macs, on Tallows Street, Carlow town, Co Carlow. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"DublinDublin Street, Carlow town. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

She also remembers when a cattle mart was held in the middle of the town, and seeing cattle herded along the streets to where the Fairgreen shopping centre is now located.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knew everyone else in those days; they all lived over the shops, apart from the big shopkeepers. Some Catholics wouldn\u2019t have shopped in Shaws because it was Protestant-owned. I miss the people who owned the shops. There are not many of us who live on the street now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Declan MacDonald\u2019s family have owned Macs Menswear on Tullow Street for decades. His son Cian is at the front counter as I come in through the handsome mahogany door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat door is there since 1948,\u201d Declan MacDonald says, when he has finished serving a customer who was in to buy casual trousers and a sweatshirt. \u201cIt came out of some shop in Dublin. When we put in a new shop front, it was made to go around the door.\u201d <\/p>\n

I ask MacDonald what he thinks are the elements that make Carlow a county town. \u201cThe independent traders,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to MacDonald, the last three years have been \u201cphenomenal\u201d for business, contrary to the story of many other such shops around the country. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s county towns: \u2018There were 300 people living on this street. Now it\u2019s 17\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFashions and colours and styles will change, but the main thing that won\u2019t change is service. We know a lot of our customers, so we can offer personal service, and chat away while we are at it. Carlow is the second-smallest county in Ireland so it\u2019s not hard to know a lot of people. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be able to adapt when serving people. One customer could be in because of a funeral, while the next would be looking to get togged out for a wedding. You need be able to adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The ancient Irish town battling against decline: \u2018It used to be the centre of things, but those days are gone now\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Colleague Seamus Kinsella is on a day off today and not in the shop, but MacDonald tells me he has been working at Macs since 1974. Is it possible that anyone else in the country could have been working in the same shop for 51 years? <\/p>\n

It\u2019s only later, when I have left Carlow, that I remember my parents lived for a time in Carlow town at the start of their marriage. My late father wore either a suit, or a shirt, tie and sweater almost the entirety of his long life. It struck me that he and my mother would almost certainly have been through the same front door of Macs that I myself had gone through that day, to choose some clothes for him during the years they lived therei. It\u2019s completely possible that Declan MacDonald\u2019s father, Tom, served them: a line of service that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

Series concludes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eileen O\u2019Rourke is the chief executive of Carlow Tourism, which is based in the same building as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,2260,2261,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-1858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-carlow-town","10":"tag-county-towns","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}