Cork shop celebrating 65 years in business on Main Street 

McCarthy’s Newsagents in Midleton has survived booms and busts to mark its 65th anniversary. CHRIS DUNNE talks to Fergus McCarthy, son of the founder, Eamon

When a retail business celebrates its 65th birthday, you know that it has proved to be an enduring and adaptable success story, and has formed a lasting bond with its community.

That has certainly been the case with McCarthy’s Newsagents at 43, Main Street, Midleton, which opened in 1960.

Looking out onto the street from the upstairs window of the shop, where Fergus McCarthy and his family - wife Susan and daughters Carla and Alex - live, Fergus recalls the days of yesteryear, when his father took the first steps in setting up the business which was to endure for generations

“I thought I might share with you a story about my father and his first days in Midleton, around 90 years ago,” says Fergus, eager to explain the rich history of his parents’ journey in establishing a successful business that has enjoyed such longevity.

“My father, Eamon, was born on a farm in Ballintrim, between Midleton and Whitegate, a few fields away from where the wind turbines are today,” says Fergus.

“As a teenager, he came to Midleton to find himself a trade and secured himself an apprenticeship with N.B Walsh’s at 31 & 32, Main Street (the old Hurley’s Bakery).

“In these two units, N.B Walsh’s had a ladies’ and gents’ drapery shop and dad was put to work in the men’s shop.”

Eamon McCarthy proved to be a bit of a rebel.

Fergus laughs. “The first day in the clothes shop was also his last!”

What happened?

“As part of the uniform, dad was required to wear a bowler hat which he flatly refused to do,” says Fergus.

“He obviously showed promise though, so the next day his new employers put him to work in their other shop down the street.

“This was a grocery/wine merchants, that as it happens was 43, Main Street. The shop he would buy many years later.”

After ‘serving his time’ at N.B.’s, Eamon moved to John Barry’s grocery and bar at 41 Main Street (now Cummins Sports) before finally opening his own shop at 25, Main Street (now Rottie’s Café) in the early 1950s.

Fergus explains how romantic fate then intervened in his father’s life.

“Owning his own place was life-changing in more ways than one, as it was directly across the road from my mother Mary’s house, and that’s how they got to know each other.

“They got married in 1959 in Midleton church, honeymooned in Dublin, and shortly afterwards, bought 43, Main Street, where we are still today.”

Fergus adds: “Midleton was much smaller then. Everyone knew my mam and dad, and it seemed that everyone knew me and my siblings as a result.

“My siblings are Catherine, Eamon, Regina and Eleanor. Everywhere we went we were ‘Eamon’s son’ or ‘Eamon’s daughter’.

When Fergus, the youngest McCarthy, was small, he got to know the customers.

“The lay-out of the shop was very different back then. It was mostly grocery and had a meat counter at the back. We sold home-cooked ham, veg from local farms, homemade raspberry and blackberry jam with fruit from our garden, and bags of apples we picked ourselves from our garden (next to Ramen).

“Around 10 years ago, my mum donated the garden to the Lions Club for housing for the elderly. It’s taken a long time to put the correct plan together, but it finally seems to be getting there with the planning notices finally up on the gate and wall.”

Fergus adds: “In one section we sold newspapers. The Cork Examiner was always the biggest seller. And the Evening Echo would arrive each day just after lunchtime.”

Eamon had a little printing business of his own back then.

“I dad ran a printing press and there was a huge guillotine in the first store room and two huge cast iron printing presses out the back. Dad used to print posters and match programmes. An old match programme turned up recently with dad’s name at the bottom of it.”

It was an amazing place for a child to grow up.

Fergus’s mother, Mary, the mother and homemaker, wore another hat too.

“She ran the office to perfection, and did so for years,” says Fergus. “She’s not that long retired. An amazing businesswoman that steered the ship for many years through thick and thin!”

Fergus has fond memories of growing up over the shop.

“I loved it. The kids at school were very impressed that I lived over a shop. They thought it was amazing!”

The premises were extended over time.

“When the elderly man died next door to us, my parents acquired his premises,” Fergus says.

“It was primarily for the back entrance, which we didn’t have back then. This is how the newsagents came about.

“Then we stocked postcards, comics, stationary, and of course, newspapers.”

“My brother worked in the grocery for a few years, but moved in to the gardaí,” says Fergus, “and my three sisters all became nurses.

“There were no supermarkets in the ’70s but they began to arrive in the ’80s and the writing was on the wall for several little grocery shops like ours, but the newsagents stayed.”

“At Christmas our back storeroom became a toy showroom,” says Fergus. “And when the newsagents moved into the larger shop next door, 42, Main Street, became a year round toy shop.”

Fergus, in his early 20s, became a child again.

“I got to try out the toys! There is a big child in every man!

“It was like a wonderland in a way and I loved working there. When the shop was quiet, I played about,” says Fergus.

“Nintendo was very big then, and I took great pleasure demonstrating them.

“I loved Christmas, but it was definitely hard work.The toy trade fairs at Earl’s Court in London were magnificent, and an eye-opener for a young man.”

It was far from easy though.

“The building would be filled to the rafters with toys from September,” says Fergus. “There was huge pressure to shift the stock before Christmas and when Smyths opened in Cork, again the writing was on the wall.

“To survive long-term, you have to evolve in a changing world.”

Shortly before Fergus married Susan, his parents moved to Lakeview, but sadly, his father ed away not long after.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had the parents I’ve had,” says Fergus. “My dad was an incredible role model, and my mother still is to this day.”

Like Eamon and Mary, Fergus and Susan raised their family above the shop, albeit in a house very much changed.

“As kids, we had no fridge in the house!” says Fergus. “It was so cold in the room next to the kitchen, we didn’t need it!

“We built a bigger kitchen and modernised the living space, so the front of the house is Georgian and it’s modern in the back.

“We’ve also got a good-sized roof garden and parking at the back. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Susan is well-known in Midleton and was a county councillor for ten years.

Like their father before them, daughters Alex and Carla, loved growing up on Main Street, and still work in the shop.

“Most of my nephews and nieces have worked here during school holidays, etc, before moving on as they grew up” says Fergus. “We have a very loyal staff and I’m incredibly grateful to them”

Fergus knows McCarthys has always been a big part of the Midleton Community.

“Our shop is a community shop,” he says.

“The chit-chat among our customers and our staff is vital, particularly with our elderly customers.

“We used to do a paper run for them during covid. That’s how my eldest daughter Carla learned to drive.”

Stocking what customers want is important.

“People say they can always find the ‘right’ card here for every occasion,” says Fergus.

He, like his parents before him, is a people person.

Midleton was badly hit by floods 18 months ago, but he says: “I tried not to stress too much during that time. The kindness of people made me cry. I will never forget all the people who turned up and mucked in to help us.

“The day of the flood may have been amongst the town’s worst days, but the days that followed were amongst its best. The people were incredible.”

The goodwill of the McCarthys to their customers and their staff could very well be the reason McCarthy’s is enjoying its incredible longevity?

“The town has been brilliant to us,” says Fergus. “and I owe everything to the people of Midleton and surrounds.

“We’ve had to move with the times and roll with the punches as the world changed around us, and in our modern digital world we continue that as best we can.

“It’s far from easy at times, but at 65, we’re definitely aiming for 70 and beyond.”

Maybe it was just as well Eamon McCarthy refused to wear a bowler hat starting his first job. After all, the rest is history.