Trades

It's me still on a shop-front and antient trades journey. From Sean Rotherry's The Shops of Ireland [recent] TSoI, I finally twigged why Shambles was the name of the street where butchers plied their bloody trade. It is short for Fleshamble, a derivation cognate with Fishamble Street [amble as in walk?] in  Dublin which famously witnessed the premier of Handel's Messiah in 1742. Back in the day, the slaughter and gore-letting was carried out in the street with the carcass then carried into the butcher's shop; for cuttjng into 'cuts'. It was expected that the rain (or the corporation, we pay our rates) would wash away the offal, although stray dogs and the very poor doubtless helped. In England they are 'butchers', in Ireland 'victuallers' [Southish] or fleshers [Northish]. You can still see these designations on shop-fronts, but I [ymmv!] don't know anyone who sends a child to "the victualler for a pound of sausages".  p.84 of TSoI features [here R] the picturesque revival style frontage of H. Hatton, on Kilree St in Bagenalstown. It's still a butchers, but Matt Dunne or Ó'duinn has pushed it up-market, so he's not only a búistéir but also an éischeadúnas = offy. You can buy local artisan jams, pickles and cookies && a bottle of wine as well as chicken bits in curry sauce. For the last several Decembers Ó'duinn has sold us an excellent ham from a known, caring, curing, farm in Fenagh, Co CW.

The Pub-Hardware-Grocery I'm most familiar with is O'Shea's of Borris. The second time we were in town [the first was at The Auction in 1996] we needed somewhere quiet to sit with two very small children. It was mid-morning, so the pub-part quiet. We ordered tea for two at the bar and went to sit round the corner in the 'lounge'. Mr O'Shea instanter came bustling out with newspaper and kindling to light the fire for the honoured guests. It was quixotic and scarcely economic given the timing but, like Luther, he could do no other. O'Shea's back then really did have wellies hanging from the ceiling and roof-nails shelved next to shampoo. It was the obvious place to take our Spanish TEFL wwoofer for the rugger in 2014. They still sell bread & buckets, tinned peas & tin pots, worm-drench & whiskey.

Growing up in England, we'd get prescriptions filled at the Chemist. Although the fully qualified man [back then mostly men] behind the counter was a Pharmacist with an MPharm. degree. In US usage the shop tends to be called a Drug Store or Pharmacy. In Ireland it's more likely Pharmacy. Although 'Medical Hall' is A Thing here. For example Price's Medical Hall [p.88 TSoI] on Clare St, Dublin 2 round the corner from the back gate of TCD. Which in turn is round the corner from Sweny's Pharmacy Lincoln Pl D2, where Leopold Bloom bought a cake of lemony soap and some lotion on 16th June 1904 = Bloomsday.

In the days before the ubiquity of cars, let alone Tesco home delivery, there were a lot more shops, even in tiny communities. Take Bunmahon, down the Déise. On the East side of the street up until 2009 there was Grocery-Kennedy-Drapery. Drapery?? There are only about 200 residents. Although nobody was selling 'notions', stout underpants, or floral pinnies in 2009. Rather, an enterprising couple, relatives of the Draper, were selling croissants, buns and fancy coffee from one of the shop counters. By 2019 they had haemorrhaged enough money and "Kennedy's Tearooms" was literally shuttered. More recently, see Sept 2025, Orlaith Brady another confident entrepreneur has painted out the Kennedy era and was selling coffee, ices, sandwiches, treats as Gourmet House. Since September 2026 Celine Murphy has taken up the rolling pin and is trading as Cupán C. Parity of esteem shout out to Serenella, who makes coffee and baked goods at the Copper Coast Visitor Centre 400m further East.

In Ireland it's Main Street but in England often High Street. Up in Geordieland where we lived 1983-1990, the suffix 'Gate' was often used: from Norse gata whc in turn from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ = street or road. And yes, 'gait' = manner of stepping, is etymologically from the same root. Gateshead is where the gata paused at the River Tyne. Westgate Road had a great second-hand bookshop. In York [Jorvik still in Danegeld]: Coppergate Gillygate, Goodramgate, Spurriergate, Whipmawhopmagate, Nottingham [Snotingaham] is similarly *gate blessed.