Walsh Jewellers on Oliver Plunkett Street, Mullingar held a retirement sale last Wednesday, 26 March, with shoppers coming from near and far to bid farewell to a cherished main street family business, which has been existence for over one hundred years.
Des and Geraldine Walsh told Topic that the retirement sale, featuring high discounts, was their way of saying ‘thank you‘ to the people of Mullingar.
The jewellers, located on Oliver Plunkett Street and locally famous for, amongst other things, the Mullingar Ring, have been trading with the Walsh name for over a century, beginning with Des’ grandparents.
“We are quite happy to retire at this stage because it gives us more time to ourselves and to see the world,” said Des. “I am sorry that I am the one that is closing the place down after all those years in the family, but we are being practical. We see it as ‘let’s have a life to ourselves.’
“Today has been hectic. The people of Mullingar have been very good to us and we are trying to give something back. To a certain extent, it is our way of saying thanks to the people of Mullingar. Over the years, they have been brilliant.”
FAMILY HISTORY
Talking about the history of the family owned business, Des commented: “This business was originally owned by a family of Tuites. James Tuite was the owner and when he passed away in 1916, my grandparents bought the place in 1917. When you think of it, it was one hell of a risky time to buy a business in the middle of the (Easter) Rising.”
“When my grandparents died, my parents took over and when my parents died, we took over and our family were reared in the business as well. In fact, I had my grandchildren here for a couple of days, so there has been five generations involved.”
“Over the years, we have had shoppers come as far as from Carrick-on-Shannon, Cavan, Ardee and from the south.”
JOE DOLAN IMPACT
Des also remembered the sales boost due to a little assistance from the then up-and-coming singer, Joe Dolan.
“It is a business that has changed unbelievably over time,” stated Des. “I remember when I was young, it was not only jewellery and clocks; we also handled things like musical instruments and records.”
“I always remember Joe Dolan, who I was in school with, when he started recording at the start of his musical career, we used to get boxes of his records and Joe would come in and sign each of them. We were selling autographed records that went like hot cakes at the time, because of Joe.”
MULLINGAR RING
About the famed Mullingar Ring, Des explained: “In Ireland, there was an Irish ring with the history attached to it. I thought, why not do something like that for Mullingar with some research. The problem was on the ring, you could only put seven symbols. I sat down and listed 26 different things that could be put on the ring.”
“I was trying to bring history to it all. I was absolutely amazed the way the whole thing took off. The first Christmas was extraordinary. People with relations abroad were coming in to buy a souvenir of Mullingar. It was a good foundation for people who, maybe were in Australia or elsewhere, to have something from home. It was important to people.”
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Des was open to talking about the difficulties of business in this day and age, stating that “trade has fallen off in the town centre by quite a bit.”
He also criticised the results of the town enhancement scheme in Mullingar, VAT rates, and that the “price of gold, which has gone through the roof.”
Des said: “We are at the stage where it is time to retire age wise. None of the family were interested in taking over the place, and to be honest, we would not have encouraged them to take over.”
“The pandemic certainly didn’t help matters and the fact that people moved on to online buying and that affected the likes of our business very much.”
The retirement sale at Walsh Jewellers continues for the coming weeks.
