Throwback Thursday: My 28-year stint as a Roches Stores worker

We have been enjoying many memories of Roches Stores, that great old stalwart of Patrick Street, over the past few weeks.

ing it the other day, this writer felt the same pang as always that it is now only an empty shell, with echoing spaces instead of busy aisles, the occasional shaft of sunlight illuminating disused staircases no longer crowded with busy shoppers, display counters and shelves left to gather dust.

‘Dem days are gone boy’, as the Cork saying has it. But the recollections remain.

Here is just one set of memories, from someone who actually worked there for almost 30 years.

“The very mention of the name Roches Stores evokes huge memories for me,” writes Finbarr Buckley. “I spent 28 enjoyable and eventful years working underneath the iconic green dome, encoming four decades of dramatic change in retail, while all the time feeling part of a unique family business which reached out to the people of Cork like no other company before or since.

“Within weeks of first walking through its door, I was made to feel at home, and by the time my probation was up I didn’t want to leave.”

Finbarr explains how he came to work in the iconic Roches Stores.

“Having finished my Leaving Certificate with Coláiste Chríost Rí, I ed the company on November 5, 1977, being very much aware that the store had a long association with the people of Cork, going all the way back to the turn of the century when a young William Roche started a modest furniture store in a side street in 1903.

“Little did Roche, who came from farming stock near Kilavullen, envisage how his modest furniture store, destroyed in the Burning of Cork by the Black and Tans in 1920, would grow into a thriving business based on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“The Cork store was renowned for its staff training and dedication to customer care which was sought-after in many cities around the country and influenced Mr Roche to seek the controlling influence in a Henry Street warehouse in Dublin in November, 1927.”

By the early 1980s, the company had acquired stores in four of the country’s main cities, Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway, employing in excess of 2,000 employees.

In the 1990s, further premises were acquired in Tralee and Newry.

Throughout, Roches Stores remained a family concern, despite the massive expansions which took place over the years.

Control tended to centralise in Dublin after William Roche himself had moved there to set up the new operation in the Henry Street store. The centralisation was confirmed when Patrick Fitzgerald also moved there some time later.

In the post-war years, this trend was reversed with the establishment of branches in other cities: William Jnr took charge in Dublin, Stanley moved to Cork, and Raymond took the reins in Limerick.

Finbarr says: “In trying times, when negotiations on expansions were often fraught with difficulty, former general manager Tom Walsh, who retired in 1980, kept a picture hanging on his office wall of the burned-out premises of 1920 to give him consolation that, ‘Things might be bad, but they couldn’t be as bad as all that!’

“The policy on which the store was founded, to give the public the full benefit of a well paid staff, remained, carried down by generations, to be its core asset.

“What department store today would be willing to allow a customer to try a pair of shoes on at home and pay later?”

Well, now that you mention that, Finbarr, this writer well recalls several pairs of Clark’s traditional leather sandals being sent up to our house when we were children, said sandals to be tried on carefully on sheets of paper so they remained spotless, and our mother bringing back the rest of the shipment to the shop when she went in to pay for our summer footwear.

It was a service that was taken for granted back then. How times change!

Finbarr resumes his story: “My first post was in the Receiving Room/Hardware stockroom under the supervision of Teddy Brackett, whom I still have so much iration for today as he continues to enjoy his extended family into his early nineties.

“My earliest memories are of emptying huge wooden crates filled with straw and containing various piece of delph.

“The December 8 church holiday really brought home the scale of the business, as the quicker we were bringing stock to fill the shelves on the main floor, the quicker they emptied.

“The buzz of the Christmas season was added to by the setting up of the toy and Christmas decoration departments.

“Any time I hear Paul McCartney and his band Wings sing Mull Of Kintyre, it brings me right back to my first Christmas at Roches, as the song reached No.1 that year.”

Having never played soccer with a club before, Finbarr ed the firm’s Shipping League team at the beginning of the 1978/79 season, first as a winger and later developing into a full-back.

“I went on to play for 14 seasons, serving as secretary, and was actively involved in organising many fundraising and social events involving the club.

“By the turn of the 1980s, the company was successfully trading in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway, with the store here on Patrick Street the largest in of employees: 600 plus, and floor space of 178,000 square feet.

“By the turn of the millennium, further stores in Dublin, Tralee and Newry were added to the dynasty.”

The mid-1980s were a time of great change in Cork, with Ford and Dunlop closing their large factories - and Roches certainly didn’t stand still. They undertook a major development with the building of the multi-storey car park on Merchant Street.

The business continued to flourish throughout the economic downturn in that decade. due to the loyalty of the people of Cork, and when another sizeable development was undertaken in 1995 with the construction of the large glass atrium, the management was focused on keeping the doors open at all times while construction was taking place.

“The eventual development of Merchants Quay Shopping Centre allowed customers to walk through Roches and into the centre itself, ing the spacious supermarket which was later taken over by Herlihy’s Super Valu, before the last link with Roches was broken following its closure [closure of Debenhams],” recalls Finbarr.

“I have heard it quoted that the attendance on All-Ireland Final day was equal to the footfall which ed through Roches into the shopping centre every week, and I would believe it.”

Finbarr explains: “Little did I know that my exit in December, 2005, after receiving a voluntary redundancy package, would see the business transfer to Debenhams and that I would go on to witness the heartbreak of many of my former colleagues as they were left high and dry by the sudden departure in turn of the English high street chain.

“As a former employee, I was immediately struck by the many expressions of loss from various of the Cork public, such was the uniqueness and importance of Roches in city centre shopping for generations.”

Even today, people still comment that ‘You could get anything in Roches!’, which was always one of its key attributes.

Former salesman Peter Murphy paid this tribute in the 2006 Christmas edition of the Holly Bough.

‘It (Roches) was always the place to meet up, whether it was for a date outside the front door in the evening on the way to the cinema, or a lunch break in the coffee shop.

“What made the store so special was the great mixture of staff who worked there for so many years.

“When one looks back now to the pre-mobile phone era and recalls the nerve-racking experience of waiting for a date outside the store’s main door, it always struck you that whether your date showed up (or whether the ing bus conductor indicated she wasn’t going to by writing 50 on the misted enger window), you were always consoled that there ‘were plenty more fish in the sea’, and you’d be back again on Patrick Street before very long!”

Murphy caught the sentiment of the Cork public well in the closing sentences of his 2006 Holly Bough feature by observing: “Now the store has become Debenhams and it is the end of a wonderful era in the history of our city.

“The architecture alone makes it stand out as a remarkable building, and regardless of what brand names go up over the doors in the future, as far as the people of Cork are concerned, it will remain ‘Roches Stores’ for many years to come!”

Finbarr adds: “For myself and I’m sure many of my former colleagues, there were so many humorous incidents which made Roches such a special place of which to be a part.”

The visit of American tourists always brought about situations for potential humour.

On one such occasion, a member of a touring group enquired as to why the Aran sweaters on display had different shades of colour. The sales assistant, Donal Murphy, politely replied to the customer’s enquiry. “Have you been to Kerry before?” he retorted.

“Indeed we have,” came the confident reply.

“Have you seen the sheep grazing at the foot of the mountains?”

“Certainly, Sir,” was the swift answer back.

“And have you seen the sheep grazing on top of the mountains.”

“That, we have,” was the American’s response.

“Well, the reason why there are different shades of colour is because the sheep at the top are nearer the sun then the ones at the bottom.”

Now, how could anyone reply to that!

In the 1970s and early ’80s, recalls Finbarr, when the furniture store was located on Merchant’s Quay (where Dunnes Stores is situated today), it was common for the various managers to hang their suit coats in wardrobes for safe-keeping.

“On one occasion, a wardrobe was sold without it being realised that the jacket was inside, leading the customer to be pleasantly surprised to find it neatly hanging up while the department manager himself was left scratching his head as to the whereabouts of his garment!

“It’s now almost 20 years since that most iconic of department stores, Roches, transferred its business to the English high street chain of Debenhams in October, 2006. At the time the people of Cork had enjoyed a long and successful relationship with the store dating back to its foundation as a modest household furniture business at the beginning of the 20th century. A poignant anniversary to be marked with regret surely.”

As Finbarr prepares to bid farewell to his second ‘work family’ at CUH in mid-July, after almost 20 years’ service, he is hoping to have the unique opportunity to meet up with many of his first ‘family’ at an eagerly-anticipated reunion at the Sky Garden in Clancy’s on Princes Street on Friday, May 23, from 7.30pm onwards.

The occasion will give staff the opportunity to recall the halcyon days of the store’s position as one of the city’s leading traders, as well as an opportunity to revive memories and friendships.

Further details from Finbarr on (086) 0712638, [email protected], and Christine on (087) 0527033.

What wonderful memories you have shared, Finbarr! If the rest of you have happy recollections of Roches, from either side of the counter, let us know! Email [email protected] or leave a message on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork.