Is Ennis turning into a ghost town?

Clareboy

Just read that Meehans of Abbey St. is to close after being 90 years in business. Meehans is an old style tobacconist and sweet shop and its a great pity to see it close down. Shopping in the centre of Ennis is becoming just another bland high street experience with all the local shops of character almost gone.

Niall_G

Yes, apparently brought to court by HSE for serving cigarettes to minors. Court issued a temporary closure order for February to which Pat responded he was closing for good in January anyway!

Shapey Fiend

I was going to make a joke about buying individual cigarettes, thought better of it, but it sounds like I wasn't far off!

A shop like that should be protected by the council though. It along with maybe Kenny's grocer are the only old style shops left. I sent a few people who weren't from Ennis in there to buy something and they didn't see the point until they got a closer look and had their change counted back to them in that inimitable style.

This is what the demonisation of a wonderful vice like smoking gets you.

toughtofind

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

I was going to make a joke about buying individual cigarettes, thought better of it, but it sounds like I wasn't far off!

A shop like that should be protected by the council though. It along with maybe Kenny's grocer are the only old style shops left. I sent a few people who weren't from Ennis in there to buy something and they didn't see the point until they got a closer look and had their change counted back to them in that inimitable style.

This is what the demonisation of a wonderful vice like smoking gets you.

It gets you the following:

Acute myeloid leukemia
Bladder cancer
Cancer of the cervix
Cancer of the esophagus
Kidney cancer
Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
Lung cancer
Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
Pancreatic cancer
Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
Stomach cancer
Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.1
Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).1,7
Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

• coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,1,5
• stroke by 2 to 4 times,1,6
• men developing lung cancer by 23 times,1
• women developing lung cancer by 13 times,1 and
• dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.1

Shapey Fiend

See what I mean? Very bad for the town in general. If you took that last post seriously you'd never leave the house. I'm wondering which of my organs doesn't have cancer at this point.

dh0661

It gets you the following:

Acute myeloid leukemia
Bladder cancer
Cancer of the cervix
Cancer of the esophagus
Kidney cancer
Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
Lung cancer
Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
Pancreatic cancer
Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
Stomach cancer
Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.1
Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).1,7
Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—
coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,1,5
stroke by 2 to 4 times,1,6
men developing lung cancer by 23 times,1
women developing lung cancer by 13 times,1 and
dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.1

OKAY OKAY - we all know that, but OP was talking of the experience of going into a real old time shop.

A shop I loved going in to, but never bought that much there.

maiden

Ah good old meehans, many a day I queued for my one fag and he would give u a free light too!

In the Market today and awful to see two places closed down side by side JDs and the fish shop, although the fish shop says it's reopening in a few weeks, I was in there last week and they had hardly any stock but I hope it reopens!

Lady Chatterton

I notice that the little supermarket next to St. Joseph's Hospital has closed too

I remember Georgie Meehan's from my teenage years too, we nicknamed it "Stale Georgie's" because they used to sell off sweets and chocolate that was very close to the best before date, it saved us money and it did us no harm at all

dh0661

maiden wrote: »

although the fish shop says it's reopening in a few weeks, I was in there last week and they had hardly any stock but I hope it reopens!

And so do I, I would imagine that with the weather conditions of late, getting fresh fish to market is almost impossible.

poppyvally

Did you notice in Parnell St., there's a whole row of empty premises.

Shapey Fiend

Lets just say it's not the glowing endorsement for pedestrianisation which a lot of boardsies have an undying thirst for. The people who like healthfood are prepared to walk and that's about it. Barcode does well cos it's extremely well ran but it was opening and closing for years before that. Granted it was pretty dead before they closed it to traffic.

buck65

Parnell St. bar maybe for 2 or 3 years was always the heel of the town and businesses suffered down there.
Take out O Connors and TM Office Supplies and one or 2 others and there really isn't anything there.
Pedestrianisation if anything has stopped the whole street going to ruin if you ask me.
I know someone who moved from Parnell St to O Connell St recently and their business has improved alot because of it.
Pedestrinisation on a saturday afternoon would be good for the town, they need to try something and fast.
For all the nostalgia about Meehan's still how many of you went there recently to help out Georgie? No point crying after the fact, get into town and support these businesses if you like them so much. Personally I wouldn't go inside the door of that place, traders should have higher standards.

ger664

pedestrianisation is not the solution its rents and rates that are the big difficulty. There is no movement on upward only rent reviews, and rates have gone up in a time when business have seen their gross income take a savage cut.

maiden

buck65 wrote: »

For all the nostalgia about Meehan's still how many of you went there recently to help out Georgie? No point crying after the fact, get into town and support these businesses if you like them so much. Personally I wouldn't go inside the door of that place, traders should have higher standards.

I don't think that's fair comment, I try my best to shop local but I've had no reason to go into meehans for years, I can't go into or afford to shop in every single shop in town! But I do my best with the ones I do frequent!

Clareman

I heard that there are 20 businesses due to close over the next month or so in Ennis, something has to be done.

Someone mentioned Parnell St., I know there's a couple of closed shops, but there's also a couple of bars, a FAS office, a watch repair, a couple of clothes shops, a book shop, a cinema on it, what more do you need? Personally I think it's a great example of how pedestrianising an area can help it, when I was younger you could drive up Parnell St. and Daly's was the only shop on the street that was ever open.

Back on my soap box, they should pedestrianise Abbey St. from the turn off to Ciaran's and they should pedestrianise O'Connell St. as far as the Cathedral, leave the rest of the car parks open, you could open the street's up for deliveries before 8 in the mornings if you must, but I think there'd be enough access through the car parks.

Existing local businesses aren't helping themselves either, I heard that the Old Ground have applied to have the car spaces on O'Connell St. outside The Town Hall handed over to them so they can put seats out there, I think that would be a great start and considering the amount of people that park in the OG anyway I don't think the spaces would be a loss, but a prominent business man in town has objected on the grounds that the spaces are more important.

Shapey Fiend

I still bought stuff in Meehans fairly often. To be honest with that place I'd say it's more to do with retirement than lack of business. I don't know how many hours he did in there but I'd guess 60+ hours a week.

golfball37

Sad to see Meehans go, was the only place in town I could find to buy cigarettes on Stephens day. Ennis is fast becoming a ghost town with nothing of note anymore. I am disgusted over it.

No matter what line is trotted out about bondholders, austerity and we're on the road to recovery. Will it all have been really worth it when we do re-enter the markets to fanfare? Our best people and business have left.

Clareman

Surely you could have gotten cigarettes in a pub or a petrol station? Also, wasn't Tesco and/or Dunnes open on St. Stephen's Day?

I'm amazed Georgies lasted as long as it did to be honest, he was constantly selling out of date stuff as well as cigarettes to under-age people, he used to buy the stock for his shop in Tesco every morning before opening up. In fairness to him though, he did try to sell up years ago for big money but there was a condition attached that he could only sell if the pub next to him was sold as well and that deal went through.

For Ennis to have any hope of surviving and not going down the route of Limerick City Centre there has to be something done, and quickly, hoping to get the Fleadh isn't the answer. Rates are still at '08 prices but businesses aren't generating the same revenue, what has to happen is either rates are cut to allow businesses have a chance to survive or give businesses a proper return on them, paint their buildings, free water/rubbish, free advertising, something, anything.

buck65

maiden wrote: »

I don't think that's fair comment, I try my best to shop local but I've had no reason to go into meehans for years, I can't go into or afford to shop in every single shop in town! But I do my best with the ones I do frequent!

Ok Maiden, point taken. My post wasn't just aimed here, I'm sick of people giving out about places closing when people have the power to support them and keep them open. Not on boards per se.

buck65

Free parking til 12 oclock worked well too at Xmas.

Shapey Fiend

What you're losing with Meehans is the style. Everything stored in wooden drawers. Whoever it's rented out to next will probably tear all the shop fittings out and turn it into something dull and homogenous. It probably outlived its usefulness by a fair margin but it was nice to have it as long as we did.

Fieldsman

I spent almost 40 years delivering goods in Ennis.George Meehan was one of my customers and one of his family was the first person to show me a 'digital watch' this has to be foreign language now yo our younger readers

Auldloon

I've bought some amount of golden Virginia in meehans over the years! Was in there once and there was a few of those adjustable supports builders use holding up the ceiling. I looked up and then couldn't get served and out of there fast enough! George didn't seem a bit concerned!
He must be well into retirement years by now?

Carazy

I always loved how people called him ''Georgie'' when his name is Pat

anthony4335

There is not many businesses left in town that can be identified by such a wide range of generations. Meehans is one of the few I can think at the moment. I would think everyone who is from the Ennis area has one stage in there life frequented this iconic shop. I am saddened by the loss of this shop as I still used it ,usually to get change for the car park by buying a bar of bottle of water. Best of luck to Georgie in his retirement as right or wrong I will always remember him for school lunch time buying single ciggarettes and getting a light from him shortly before going into Enzo's for a bag of chips. What a healthy diet I had back then.

Clareman

anthony4335 wrote: »

There is not many businesses left in town that can be identified by such a wide range of generations. Meehans is one of the few I can think at the moment. I would think everyone who is from the Ennis area has one stage in there life frequented this iconic shop. I am saddened by the loss of this shop as I still used it ,usually to get change for the car park by buying a bar of bottle of water. Best of luck to Georgie in his retirement as right or wrong I will always remember him for school lunch time buying single ciggarettes and getting a light from him shortly before going into Enzo's for a bag of chips. What a healthy diet I had back then.

I don't know, I think Ennis has a wealth of established shops that have spanned generations, off the top of my head I'd name Tierney's Toys, Tierney's grocery's, Ennis Cash, Maurers, Collins, Gail Travel, O'Connors, Wilsons, Heaslips, McCarthy's. That's before you go into any bars or restaurants or clothes shops

Clareman

Carazy wrote: »

I always loved how people called him ''Georgie'' when his name is Pat

Was talking about nicknames coming down generations in the pub recently and a guy told us that in his locality there's a fella known as the Cat, son the Kitten, the Horse, son the Pony and best of all, a fella known as Sausage and his son Cocktail.

anthony4335

point taken, however alot of those businesses I would not really frequent. Tierney's now that is a great shop, love to go in there from time to time, buy something for the nephews. Hardley has changed in all the time I have been going in there. One thing I really miss, is a good record shop.

Lady Chatterton

anthony4335 wrote: »

One thing I really miss, is a good record shop.

I bet you remember the late Joe Galligan's shop - 'Hurdy Gurdy'. It was situated in Abbey Street opposite Georgie Meehan's. I remember my mother used to take me in there as a child and every week I'd get to buy a single. Jaysus, I'm feeling ancient now I used to love Record Rack too in the early days too.

Lady Chatterton

Clareman wrote: »

Was talking about nicknames coming down generations in the pub recently and a guy told us that in his locality there's a fella known as the Cat, son the Kitten, the Horse, son the Pony and best of all, a fella known as Sausage and his son Cocktail.

Wow, that is pretty random and you thought my 'Hail Mary' post was out there, lol :D