I walked by the barbers in Dalkey yesterday and for a split second I was back in the mid-1970s. I was once again the little boy with the flaming red hair, short pants and freckles looking up at the kind barber. The boy had a dilemma and the barber was the only person in the whole world who could solve it.
My earliest memories of Castle Street, Dalkey, were Saturday mornings in Dom McClure’s barber shop with my father. Dom cut my grandad’s hair, my dad’s hair and now he was shearing mine.
Most importantly, everyone in Dalkey knew that Dom McClure understood hair and his magic hair oil could turn my red hair black so that no one in school would ever call me rusty, redser or jaffahead again. Dom was not just a barber, he was my saviour and through Dom I would be redeemed. He promised that by the time I was 10, I’d be jet black. I believed him.
As usual, when I peeked into the shop on a Saturday morning, Dom put on his best Scottish accent which he called “Scotch”, gently mocking my grandfather who came from Scotland to Dalkey in the 1920s. According to Dom, both my grandparents had “shocking Scotch accents”.
Back then, Dom had a plank that he’d place carefully across the arms of the barber’s chair so a young fella could sit up and see himself in the yellowed mirror. I loved the barber, the smell of the hair oil, the wireless in the corner, the copies of the Irish Independent and the football talk. I felt like this was my entree into the world of men. And Dom conferred status on me by handing over the huge brush to sweep up the hair.
The barber, like the grocer, the draper and pub were part of the community and this was where people came to chat and keep up-to-date with what was going on in the town. A few doors up from the barber — which is still thriving — my grandfather had a sign-writing shop but he had one fatal flaw as a businessman: he didn’t like asking people for money. He went bust in the 1950s, bequeathing me a life-long affinity with struggling traders.
The spectre of the 1950s is once again haunting the businesses of the town. If any small town loses its shops and businesses, it loses what makes the place special. Over the years, people have moved into Dalkey because of its special atmosphere, because it is a living and working town with a community at its core. This could be lost in this recession.
To see how one closure leads to another, you only have to look at the many English villages and towns where there are actually no shops with the exception of one or two chainstores on the outskirts. It is essential to a town’s life, atmosphere and community that it survives as a trading hub with its own ecosystem. And for that ecosystem to survive, it needs cobblers and chippers as much as it does boutiques and bars.
The ‘Dalkey dilemma’ is valid in any town in Ireland. If the heart of the town is thriving or at least surviving, the community can flourish. But, like many towns in Ireland now, the town and the traders of Dalkey are not thriving. In fact, many are barely staying open. In the past 12 months, 10 local businesses have closed down and some traders are saying they are only months away from closure. In fact, the post office on dole day is the only shop with a queue in it. Last Tuesday, the queue was out the door.
This is what the credit crunch means in reality. Small businesses which are the backbone of our economy are being hammered by the banks tightening credit while costs remain stubbornly high. All the while, we the customers — aware of the dole queues — are keeping our hands in our pockets and postponing spending because, as prices fall, there are better bargains to be had.
But when a small business closes it doesn’t open again in a hurry and something is lost. The lifeblood of any town — whether it is Dalkey or Drogheda, Listowel or Lahinch — is the vibrancy of the local shops. If this goes, the town dies. And towns do die. This happens slowly but the pattern is as follows. One or two businesses go bust and then their premises come up for rent. The empty premises decline, become shoddy and this puts off new players who are worried about passing trade. Rents mightn’t move because the landlords are in trouble and don’t want to admit that they have to mark down the value of their portfolio. The banks get worried and cut back credit. People sense this and a little bit of the town’s spark ebbs away. Unless someone shouts stop, this process can become self-fulfilling.
Last night the traders of Dalkey shouted stop and they held an extraordinary meeting in the town hall of small businesses, shopkeepers, hairdressers, pub owners, restaur- ateurs, butchers, the local guards, the hotelier and even the local bank manager. The organisers expected about a dozen people to turn up — close to a hundred came.
The local traders have decided that there is little point waiting for the recovery; you have to make it happen. If you are concerned about your town and your locality, you have to do something for yourself.
The most exciting aspect of last night’s meeting was the pride everyone had in the place and the absolute intention of not letting one more business go to the wall.
The first part of the local fightback is to try to get a few more locals to spend a bit more in the town rather than spend it elsewhere. It is not about huge gestures, just small things — like maybe a loyalty card for shopping locally. The traders told me that the town was packed during the January snow when local people couldn’t drive to the bigger shops out of the town.
If every day we could get one of these local people who normally head out to one of the big supermarkets to stay and shop locally, the difference would be incremental but enormous. All over Ireland, traders are facing the same problem. How do they stay open first and secondly how do they expand? Most of us realise these dilemmas exist but usually we expect someone else will do something and we wait. Then a shop closes and we comment on its passing but do nothing and don’t see that it is our spending power, however modest, that is the key. Then the next goes to the wall but we don’t act and on it goes until one day the knock comes to your door, the reality comes home to you and you are made redundant and guess what, no one comes to your aid.
To prevent this from happening, it is essential that communities in Ireland come together in the recession. So many towns in our country have so much to offer in terms of festivals, tourism or one-off events. This is the way communities are re-built. I saw the energy in my own home town last night. This can be repeated everywhere all over the country. This is the opportunity in this crisis, the opportunity to come together. Let’s get the ball rolling.
By the way, the hair of the young fella in Dom McClure’s barber never did go black!
I do see some towns doing as David described. I was in Castlecomer in Co. Kilkenny for about 3 weeks last year and they had some new shops open up in the past year. It appears that folks were not making the 20-30 minute drive in to Kilkenny as much as they may have in the past and are supporting the local shop instead.
But I do see that it’s a hard call for folks who, everyday, have to make a choice to support the local shop that costs a bit more or the large chain store with cheaper prices.
David , I am delighted to hear the business people in Dalkey doing this , I worked there my self for a period in the old tram yard and I liked the feel of the village . Two years ago when I took on a role for a regional newspaper I could see what was coming down the line here and I approach the Commercial /Advertising Manager of the paper to run with my idea , of , A PASSPORT TO Your Town, it would of course be a revenue stream for the paper with shops advertising in the booklet,… Read more »
You know what Dalkey business is successful? Mugs.
You know why?
They ungrudgingly offer a good service and they open as often as possible.
Dalkey has always had a high turn over in local businesses as people start ventures that are doomed to failure.
(i.e. that light-blue ‘gift shop’ that opened beside the Pet Shop and went out of business before I got around to going in)
I’d like you to be more specific about your 10 businesses.
-ANkh
As the opening paragraphs suggest, this is more about a nostalgic trip down memory road….. Seems impossible to wind back the clock……….indigenous/family/cottage industries are the way to go, but government/EU/Western policy is dead set against it as there are no back handers or jobs in the private sector when you lose your seat!! Agriculture is a dead loss as the EU and US are determined to be served by developing markets, but I heard Sean Sherlock talk of small food businesses, farmers markets with the possibility of export, along with a whole host of other measures which all seemed reasonable… Read more »
Here’s an example of a great ‘local business’ taking initiative to fight their corner – this guy was sampling sausages in a traffic jam one Friday morning recently, I had to go back & take a look! Great attitude, very progressive, incredible focus on ‘what the customer wants’. It certainly gave me some confidence that that ‘spirit’ exists to fight to retain local business. http://www.johnsmeatco.ie/home.php
Sorrento Way – I think we should all leave the rustic plain aoulde Ireland and flee from the indiginous tribes and gangstas and ‘aquire’ a cottage in Dalkey and write and sell internet books for a living .Philosophers do not cut their hair regularly but enough of us would keep aoulde Dom in good business for a long time.And in our spare time we can buy a rod and fish our way to the table.
“Over the years, people have moved into Dalkey because of its special atmosphere, because it is a living and working town with a community at its core. ” I wouldn’t mind moving to Dalkey either as one of the most expensive suburbs, close to the sea & Bono as my neighbour. I’ll have to dig out that million I left in the back of the sofa. In fairness, I think the real reason these businesses fail is that both people work in most families and that means they don’t have the time to go to the butchers, grocers, etc. as… Read more »
While I agree with most of what David is saying I find it a little difficult to accept that all small, local businesses deserve support. Coming from Carrick on Shannon which boomed in the tiger era I saw many local businesses bask in the good times and refuse to give back to their communities. The biggest example of this was our June bank holiday festival, for years supported by local businesses it brought in thousands of people over the weekend with the highlight being a fireworks display on the Sunday night. I grew up with this every June and it… Read more »
David, that’s splendid writing. WordPress. Wordsmith. Writing as craft. ‘An Irish Childhood In Dalkey’! I don’t see any nostalgia in respectfully mourning what has been lost and, in grieving that loss, looking optimistically towards how to re-shape, re-fashion the future. There is nothing more depressing than historic town facades that host nothing more than upscale ‘antiques’, boutiques or downmarket charity shops competing with High St marketeers. Sadly, there are so many ‘drivers’ that are directing traffic to the new retail parks ‘going forward’, etc. Exhausted commuters, having escaped the ever extending tentacles of the Metropolis, simply don’t have the time… Read more »
I was out in my local pub last Saturday night and we were just having a conversation about this very topic, however one thing that we more or less agreed upon from the outset was that price consideration from a consumer perspective is actually not the primary motivator when it comes to where to purchase. We could all point to very recent experiences of rude staff in local shops. Funnily enough, even the pub we were sitting in as we spoke, a pub we have been socialising in for many years, we all got the feeling that there was no… Read more »
Bottom line, you cannot beat Asda Enniskillen.Many small traders became very wealthy screwing people , charging top $ for mediocre product.Survival of the fittest!.
I meant to say, did anyone hear Ben Dunne on Newstalk this afternoon??? He hit the nail on the head, the real economy is close to collapsing altogether, such is the entrenchment of consumers in relation to spending… He reckons we are being lied to when we are being told by the government that there is a fragile recovery underway, he says the situation is getting worse and worse and the end is more or less nigh…
Full time employment fell by 200k in 2009, in the eighties the figure for the entire decade was 120k,albeit from a lower base.Shows the level of the catastrophe facing many.
We are about to break Japans world property crash record of 50% off the top, now think Japan and now think Cowen and Co ……….now think Titanic.
David, what a blast from the past ! The 70s must have been a different hair experience for someone whose main challenge was colour. For me, it was the fact that the “in” style of the time called for long hair and side burns, but growing up impoverished in Dalkey meant that all haircuts were “Dom McClure specials”, consisting of a 1950s crew cut. That combined with hand-me-down clothes meant you were turning up in school with garish-coloured bellbottoms and a shaved head … looking like some tragic glam rocker who’d been set upon by an Indian war party. I… Read more »
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Comment from Machholz
Living in Wicklow town
What your are describing is the same here, only the traders people seem to have given up
Apart from the few eastern block people that seem to give it a go every so often nothing is storing here
The local political top dogs seem to not give a dam
And I am sorry to say that any new shops that open last only 3-4 months
People here seem to just accept the slow death of the town
What a shame!
See my posting on http://thepressnet.com/2010/03/22/wicklow-open-for-business/
The problem with Dalkey is the car-parking charges. The church car park used to be always full so all those people are now somewhere else. It really puts you off if you are watching the clock to see if you risk being clamped.
Also people do not always have coins with them and because it’s pay and display you end up putting too much in just in case and then feel annoyed at wasting your money.
It’s easier to go somewhere where parking is free.
Eze – Dalkey – I am often in Eze ( cote d’azur ) and the same feel of Dalkey prevails around and likely to remain .There is only one shop left in Eze and Bono is one of their customers.
The people of Dalkey are a completely different kettle of fish to the rest of us. They are mobile, is the main reason for the fall off in business, they prefer to go where there is free parking for their large cars.
But for the rest of us its the economy thats the problem. Deflation has set in, I was in Dingle last weekend and the B&B was 65 euro for a double and a pint was 4.50 …..ridiculous. Prices have to fall before we start spending, I know that I won’t be going back to Dingle anytime soon.
@paddy Jones, Bamboo, Thomas ferguson.
BULLSEYE.
Lads, I lived in Germany in the mid 70’s to mid 80’s I shared a house with the landlord for a rent then of approx 150Euro To-day I could buy that house for about 155 k euro The town is Lubeck and Ryanair fly there every day for about 25 euro The house has 4 bedrooms a garage and is detached 10 mins from town centre and bus stop right outside the door The house is about 10 mins away from the local airport and 45 mins train journey from Hamburg city centre area similar to Blackrock in Dublin. Yes… Read more »
Extract from Darling’s Budget Statement, Today
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8585373.stm
The 50 per cent rate of income tax will come in next month, but only affects those with earnings over £150,000 a year, the top 1 per cent of earners.
For people with incomes over £100,000 a year, the top 2 per cent, we will gradually remove the value of their personal allowances.
Tax relief on pensions will be restricted from next year, but again only for those with incomes above £130,000 a year.
I think a good idea at this stage would be to set up and promote LOCAL COMMUNITY BASED CURRENCIES.
While the big economy collapses, we should be creating community based micro-economies that can grow while the old one collapses.
This could comprise the basis of a new order.
A few of you have described the rigged nature of the pricing in this country and the nonsensical nature of the price differentials between ourselves and other more power economies. To be fair to local businesses, many of the input costs can only be squeezed to so low a level. Rates, Power, Water and then the employment charges and then Audits:Health and Safety, Financial…and the legals. And all this before you start trading. Having traders band together and form their own micro economies will not work unless you can band together to negotiate with the “authorities” etc. and bring input… Read more »
David – a very salient article for us all. Our sense of community is dying. It has been dying since Liam Lawlor or whoever it was got planning permission for Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. The Omniplex, happy motoring culture that has been derided by Kunstler has been swallowed by Ireland. This reminds me of the great American classic “It’s a wonderful life”. It was about banking finance, hard work, and ordinary people trying to live honourable lives. A bit like what we have all be trying to do in this country, but which we have been prevented from doing because… Read more »
Dalkey is a great place to live and work – and the fresh food shops here along with the market on Fridays in the Town Hall are reason enough to shop here. Our business attracts a lot of visitors from outside Dalkey and it gives me great pleasure to recommend the great cafes, restaurants and pubs to our visitors. There’s a perfect place for everyone from people with little kids to couples looking for an intimate dinner. Pay and display has saved our business – before it the whole town was just one large DART carpark with nowhere for customers… Read more »
David, I followed you “Lead” over two years ago and have been doing this ever since.
Philip has been advocating the same thing, here, for nearly as long. It works,
If we support eachother in our communities, we can survive, regardlesss of government policies that work against us.
Let’s keep at it!
David I think your hair makes you look distinguished and didn’t know you had Scots roots. Now I know why you are not the type to lie down and let them walk all over us. For the uninitiated Glenfiddich is Scotch but Scottish people are Scots. I wonder what Dom meant by shocking accents but seeing as this sounds like a real mans barbers shop I can only imagine it was just a bit of craic. This story reminds me of a town that died. Clydebank on the banks of the river clyde was a great little town and was… Read more »
I’m going home next week. Really looking forward to it, been about 3 years since I last visited. And I’m going home to find out what’s going on. I don’t know what to expect as I hear mixed stories – and most of the stories are that it’s not that gloomy. Last time I was at home I couldn’t believe it – people were throwing Euros around like confetti. I knew then that we were earning much more than my friends, and weren’t even close to being in the same amount of debt. Maybe it was the exchange rate at… Read more »
Dalkey Soleil – the sun rises in the sea in front of Dalkey every morning bringing with it messages from Ukraine and Moscow and Tokyo and in the evening the same sun falls in front of Dun Aengus sending NAMAtised news made by man and nature to New York and Washington of slavery from the green republic
Full Moon – Go Slow NOW .
Much will happen because full moon is on Monday .
Another once quaint suburb of Dublin is also in the news again. The autonomous suburb known as the Docklands. The former glass bottle site purchased for €400 million and now worth nothing. The barber(The Dublin Docklands Authority), the grocer (Bernard McNamara) and the draper (Davys Private Clients) were part of the community and this was where people came to chat and keep up-to-date with what was going on in the town and make a few million on the side. A few doors up from the barber – which is no longer thriving – NAMA has a bailout shop which has… Read more »
Today the indo reports on industrial action at the passport office and at the dept of social; welfare which could affect thousands of benefit payments. They combine the passport dispute and the benefits office strike in the same article while giving most of their attention to one individual who can’t get to Thailand to attend a wedding.
Meanwhile in the Irish Times the most read and emailed story is titled ‘Worlds best pacman devours all before him’
I’m all for the local community effort and support.Its probably the only way to reignite the economy.The local shop is the place where everyone should spend their money, but guess what, its owned by a big faceless organization.They are called symbol stores.They sucked in some poor gobshite with promises of glory during the boom.They sourced the store, kitted it out, stocked it and the poor gobshite is now working 100+ hours a week trying to cover his/her costs while the mothership is coing it in through that poor persons sweat and toil.You only have to look at the Super Valu… Read more »
Hi David, You highlight the age-old economic ‘tussle’ between economy of scale and cost of purchase/delivery. Goods and services can be delivered more efficiently when they are delivered in large amounts. Its why I dont cook my own bread, dont make my own clothes or indeed didnt build my own house. Its the way of the world and has ever been thus. Its why we have worker ants and queen bees – specialisms and scale. Its biologically natural. Hence, large retail units and shopping centres are not because of some big business ‘collusion’ as some have suggested but because it… Read more »
There are numerous problems with high street retailing in Ireland. 1. Staff. Probably the most unhelpful unwelcoming shop workers in the world. Suggestion: Hire people with good manners, train staff to value the customer. 2. Opening Hours. Most people work in factories / offices / business premises between 9 – 5. Most shops are open between 9 – 5. Guess what? People cannot be in 2 places at once. Suggestion; Open the shop from 1 – 9. People can go shopping on the way home from work, meet friends for a coffee, go for something to eat in restaurant after… Read more »
Folks, The Dalky Business group referred to will be featured on the Mooney show on RTE radio 1 today, 3pm onwards, if you are interested.
From UK..
Community websites all over UK soon http://www.localpeople.co.uk
also
Local loyalty card used in London
http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/Home
RTE Radio 1 – Mooney Show – David is talking to Derek about the situation we face we NAMA.
Celestial Show with Mooney how apt ! I believe David is truely a philosopher using the passport of Economics .What he gives is a challenge for listeners and readers ‘to think’ .Now that ain’t easy .Its especially painful now for many and it hurts a lot to stop to think. Parliament on stage and stage in parliament only shows the transparency of a leaderless politics elected in a ‘toilet chamber’ with a ‘drink cabinet’ in Ireland .It is coming closer to the time when the electorate will have no choice but to wake up and ‘think’ to do something for… Read more »
Some interesting ones
Collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyHIOg5aHk
The Yes Men Fix the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnQX09DZLYE
Folks, Peter Matthews just sent this:
“Can’t get a meeting with Aynsley or Dukes, rhetoric of ‘least worst option’ goes unchallenged!”
http://bit.ly/bdm2ow
Via Stephen Kinsella (Excellent, this):
First I read this, then this, then this. Then I thought, my God, they are doing this.
Orderings really do matter sometimes.
Greece to default soon ?.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-24/germany-france-back-imf-greek-role-official-says-update1-.html
DDDA reports now available:
http://thestory.ie/2010/03/25/ddda-reports/
Posters.
David on Mooney and Derek Mooney asked David point blank will he make a move and head a direct concerted fight back head on against the ‘insiders’ and consider more active efforts like running for election and David responded that he has no intention to do so and its best to keep local and stay local and make any activism on his account local and giving jobs to people.
Posters. Tim s link @42 is very interesting. Its locus of interest curves along the ANIB s losses and its losses ready to be reported on of, wait for it, 12 000 000 000. The article considers wind down and state responsibility for its deposits. So, anyone please correct me if I am wrong about this but what seems to be going on is that the taxpayer is funding ANIB in the back door to be able to cash their depositers out coming in the front door. ANIB loaned out all the depositers cash to a property Ponzi scam it… Read more »
In shock here – Alan Dukes has just said on PrimeTime that “In the general scheme of things 1 Billion is NOT huge”
Can someone answer this.In light of the will of the small entrepeneur to kickstart the economy, does anyone have the stomach to start up a new bank.Naieve as it may seem Seanie and his cronies had a free hand to challenge the big guys and succeeded up to the point of greed.Surely a new entity with a blank canvass and free of legacy debt could be up and running and instead of lobbing in €6bn every year to the dead dinosaurs these injections could be given to embryonic projects that had some chance of serving an ailing economy and succeeding.To… Read more »