Galvanised shop makes a comeback with nostalgia

Louise Walsh

Visitors including Sinead O'Connor and folk legend Tommy Makem once enjoyed tea at one of Ireland's oldest galvanised shops, which is making a comeback with nostalgia.

Wholesome thick-cut corn beef and wafer-covered slices of ice-cream are all being re-introduced to Smyth's Shop at Rossin,  Slane, which has been opened for the last 55 years.

Tressa Smyth (80) and her son, James Martin, have no use for a till - they tot up in their heads, using a pen and the back of a brown paper bag to calculate the customer's tally.

To walk into the blue-painted building, which itself has been used as a shop for over 100 years - is like stepping back in time.

A simple wooden counter, a old-style balance scales and jars of quart sweets are only lacking in a distinct smell of tobacco to transport you to the grocery shops of yesteryear.

Now, re-opening after six months, James and his mum have decided to re-introduce the very things that made the shop a household name in the past.

"We have opened our tea-rooms again and we're going to have traditional music and food on the go during the Fleadh Cheoil which is being held in Drogheda next month, " said James, who has worked behind his mum's counter since he was just three years old.

"Mam and her sister Sumpty took it over from Corcorans 55 years ago and they were ahead of their time in a world where female businesswomen were almost unheard of.

"Mam and Sumpty always added up totals in their head using a brown bag and a pen and I'm the same. It keeps the mind active.

"We also used to measure out all our tea and sugar and if you wanted a quart of tobacco, we'd cut it between the Mick and the Mac of the brand Mick McQuaid.  All that is gone now."

The shop was closed for six months after Tressa fell ill and needed James (49) to look after her.  It was during this time that James decided he wasn't going to let the business die on its feet.

"I had to do something.  I couldn't let it go so we've opened up the tea rooms again, we're getting traditional artists in and we're introducing local arts and crafts as well as bringing back old favourites like the corned beef and the ice-cream," he said.

The shop was the stop-off point for coaches to Newgrange before the construction of the interpretative centre, which diverted visitors via the other side of the Boyne.

"Everyone used to stop off here 30 years ago for tea and scones.  The interpretative centre changed all that.  No-one stays in the area anymore.

"There was a woman in Slane who would send all the ladies out to stay here and use the showers as she felt it was safer for them not to be around all the drink in the village," he laughed.

"We had a wall full of postcards from all over the world from visitors who popped in over the years."

Mrs Smyth still does a few shifts behind the counter and is checked upon by workers in the nearby piggery who drop in for breakfast each day.

Sadly, her sister Sumpty passed away eight years ago.

"We used to have a hall out the back that was used for discos and all kinds of local meetings and Mam and Sumpty would fight their corner and throw out anyone causing divilment.  It was a real community shop," he continued.

Indeed in its hey day, Tressa and her sister Sumpty were responsible in ensuring the Scottish Rock band 'Big Country' made the concert at Slane after gardai refused them entry when they arrived at the village in an apparent clapped out van.

"They were due to play Slane and came in after the gardai had refused to let them into the village and Sumpty called Lord Henry Mountcharles who sent out a car for them straight away.

"Over the years, we had Sinead O'Connor in for tea and folk singer Tommy Makem who used to drop off his family at Newgrange and come here for a chat with my late father Jim, while waiting for them.

"We also had the Chief of the Mohawks from the US and the second-in-command to the Dali Lama to name but a few.

"Pearl Jam, who played Slane twice wrote a song about an old lady behind a counter and we'd like to think it was about mam, but of course, we're not sure," he chuckled.

In the coming weeks, customers can get sumptuous local produce and arts and crafts as well as buy the old-style ice-cream and corned beef and hear traditional music.  They can even camp during the Fleadh Cheoil

"We're bringing people back to Rossin!  We're bringing back Smyth's and I hope people will like the new us that is now almost the old us," he added.