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Seventy years ago today an Omeath institution was born.
It is very hard to imagine Omeath without the Mulligan's Corner House shop at the crossroads right bang in the centre of the village.
The shop was opened 4 July 1952 by Mary and Paddy Mulligan. It has been a family run business since then and today it is run by their daughters Frances and Pauline and son Patrick.
Frances explains "My father was Patrick Mulligan and he's the Mr. P across the front. We still trade as Mr. P Mulligan and we won't let anyone change it. They say it's Patrick. I said it's Mr. P! Sometimes people refer to us just as The Corner House, Omeath and that's fine. We talk about ourselves sometimes as Mulligan's The Corner House because at one point there was two Mulligan families, but now there's only one so we don't need to distinguish ourselves."
Early Days
Patrick Mulligan spent his life in Newry. He met his wife Mary in Newry Market "They met in the market in Newry because she worked in Curtis's as a book-keeper and Daddy worked in the Market because his father had a stall." said Frances. Her mother Mary was from John Martin Street while Patrick lived in Carnagat before moving to Omeath in the 1940's, at the beginning living in a railway carriage bought from the Great Northern Railway.
It's thought it would have taken about a year to build the shop and with much of the trade at that time based on the 12th of July holiday period it would certainly have been opportune to have it opened for 4 July.
"That was the biggest time for the the buses, the boats, all at that time. We would still work towards it today even though it's all changed, but we still work towards the 12th of July. Then the 15th of August was the end of the season and it was also another big day, a lot more country people. There would be people up here that never was out from the previous year. They would have got cleaned up and came here. They came over on the boats, not cars." she adds.
A Family Concern
Frances remembers standing on a box in front of the till and working the till for everybody at the tender age of seven! She went to Our Lady's in Newry and every evening she came home it was to the shop she was sent. "Every evening I came home, there was with a bus out of Newry at twenty past four, I would come in, mother would have the tea on the table and the next thing it was, have your dinnner, take off your uniform and go down and stay with Ann [a staff member] until six o clock."
There were 14 in the Mulligan family and they all worked in the shop at one time or another. "They all came in from nine or ten - As long as they could be seen over the counter they got to work, they had to work, there was no voluntary thing in it!" she recalls.
There would have been up to 20 people working in the shop at times. Family members would have jumped in a car and picked up staff in Newry, Carlingford, Cooley and Dundalk at busy times.
Buses and Boats
In the 60's and 70's the busy spells were based on the boats from Warrenpoint and the buses, but the buses stopped in the 80's when nearly everybody had a car. At the height of the bus traffic a car park behind Doyles in the village could have had 20 to 30 buses in it. It was a short day though as once the boats and buses went, that was it.
Everything from a Needle ...
The type of goods on sale over the years may have changed somwhat but the incredible variety certainly hasn't. A quick look around today would see an unbelievable variety of Irish souvenirs, toys, hardware, household items, religious goods, hats, toilitries, watches, cards, jewellery and much much much more, not forgetting the ice cream of course! We even spotted a clay pipe for sale - yes a genuine clay pipe!
Frances says of visitors to the shop "They're always amazed when they see the place and I'd be trying to figure out how it stayed the way it was. Sometimes I think it's because I couldn't see it as a modern shop, and it just was easier to keep it the way it was."
At the beginning Mulligans also sold groceries. Frances remembers loose biscuits in a box with a glass lid from Jacobs where you filled paper bags with the biscuits. The sugar and the flour also had to be filled in bags. There also was a chemist counter at a time and a very busy jewellery one. Toys were something that have stood the test of time although back then tin toys were the order of the day as well as wind up toys.
Patrick adds "I suppose it's one of the last old family run businesses that you would have found in any street in Newry, any street in Dundalk, any town in the country. They're slowly slowly dying away and we have come through the test of time and hung on. He laughs "Everybody works to a goal, to a finish - It just never seems to finish!"
Famous!
Newry.ie couldn't help ask were there any famous people through the doors over the years, to which Patrick quips "You're looking at them - we sticked it seventy years!"
Mind you it would be hard to top the day Dolly Parton walked in with local man Tommy McQuillan! Others such as Cardinal Daly or Ryan Turbidy who came in for an ice cream just couldn't compete, but perhaps Patrick is right - The most famous ones are the family themselves!
Nowhere Like It
Visitors still holiday in Omeath especially during the school holidays with the local caravan site packed to capacity. As Patrick agrees, it's the best place in the world. "It actually is. If you do any travelling around the country and come back either across the Flagstaff coming home, or come back in across the Long Woman's Grave, or come back in from Cooley, there's nowhere like it!" he said.
Grateful
Two of the family that worked in the shop over the years, Aidan and Micheal sadly passed away in recent years and are fondly remembered.
Summing up the family's thoughts today on the landmark 70 years Frances concluded "During our lifetime we have come across numerous difficulties and have managed to keep going. A lot of these problems were due to our geographical location and recently been closed during the COVID didn't help but we have reached 70 years in business.
"This is a family business. We are second generation, started on the Fourth of July '52 by my parents, Mary and Paddy Mulligan. They had 14 children and each one while they lived here played their part to make our business what it is today. Everyone worked behind the counters and also were painters, electricians, carpenters, and any other job that was needed. We rarely had to employ anybody for these things. We had to pick up staff, deliver goods, collect goods. Everyone played their part, took off holidays to help with peak times in the shop. We have three members now and others help when needed.
"I want to thank the many people who worked in the shop over the years, from friends of my fathers to aunts, uncles, cousins, and lots of other people and to the many people, both local and others, without whom we would not have reached this milestone.
"We are proud of reaching 70 years in business today."
P. Mulligan - The Opening Hours
Apart from closing for a fortnight around Christmas the shop is open all year round. P. Mulligan's is open from 11am - 5pm 7 days a week July, August and September and the rest of the year the same hours but closed on a Thursday.
