Cherished childhood memories of Clerys

THE closure of Clerys was a sad day, not only for the affected employees, but for all the generations of Dubliners who passed through its doors.

When I was growing up back in the 1970s, no trip into town was complete without a visit to the iconic department store.

The ritual was nearly always the same: we’d get off the train at Connolly; buy some new shoes in the shop under the railway bridge on Talbot Street; a quick pit stop at Guiney’s; a flick through the record covers at Dolphin Discs

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The best, though, was always kept till last. It had all been building up to Clerys, home to the country’s most incredible toy department; nothing short of a utopia for kids of my generation.

Most of the time it was just for a look. Back then, we got toys at Christmas or for our birthdays, not like some of today’s pampered children.

In 1977, I had money of my own after doing the lucrative First Holy Communion circuit. The only place I wanted to spend it was in Clerys. The trip to town with my mother the following weekend couldn’t come quick enough as I had my eye on one of those Six Million Dollar Man action figures.

In those days, families didn’t dine out as much as they do now, but when they did, the rooftop restaurant in Clerys was a firm favourite. My father would bring us there every Christmas, followed by a visit to the

‘real’ Santa downstairs.

As with everything else, Clerys had the best Santa in Dublin and the seemingly endless queue would snake around the corner to North Earl Street. It was worth every single freezing minute.

Despite expressing their sympathy with the Clerys employees, our politicians shouldn’t be too surprised by the demise of the business. The city centre has been decimated by the proliferation of massive shopping centres and retail parks on the outskirts of the city, all developed with the blessing of our local authorities. There has also been a sharp decline in the numbers of our country cousins making the annual December 8 shopping pilgrimage to the

‘Big Smoke’ for the same reason. Even small towns in the Midlands are self sufficient these days when it comes to retail centres.

In these busy times, many of us have migrated to the world of online shopping. We’ve also had our pockets picked by the Government through property tax, the Universal Social Charge and water bills. This was the limited disposable income families once had to make the occasional trip to places like Clerys.

Until the so-called recovery starts to percolate down to people’s spending power, we can expect to see further high profile casualties on the city’s retail landscape.