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In the wake of new businesses like Quarters, The Ashe Hotel and Benners opening in town, we got in touch with our feminine side (ok, we asked some women we know!) to reflect on some much missed places which have closed over the years…
Woolworths
Okay, so you have to be at least over 40 to remember it in the first place – but wasn’t it great?
Located where Penney’s is now, Woolworths was the go-to place for buying your family crap presents at Christmas.
Soap-on-a-rope for Granny, a musical Snow Globe for aunty Bridie – you got it all under one roof, and still had change out of 20 pence for a bag of sweets from the Pick N’Mix. Those were the days.
Continued below…
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A-Wear. Pulling power a speciality.
A-Wear
If you were female, single and going out on the town Saturday night, a visit to A-Wear for a cool ‘pulling’ outfit was a must.
They had all the up-to-the-minute looks, plus great bags and accessories that didn’t cost the earth.
So what if that new dress ended up in a ball on the bedroom floor on Sunday morning, covered in lipstick stains and stinking of cigarettes? (Your sister probably would’ve robbed it anyway).
Sasha
If A-Wear was for the ‘On-the-pull-at-Spirals/Fabric/Horans/Wherever, then Sasha took care of the sartorial needs of the ‘I-might-be-married-but-I’m-not-letting-myself-go’ fraternity.
Great work outfits, great shoes and a legendary post-Christmas sale in which women were occasionally known to scratch each other’s eyes out for the last pair of slash-priced designer jeans.
The Bridge Street branch of Dunnes Stores
It was just so handy. Friday evening, too lazy to cook, couldn’t face the queues in the bigger supermarkets ? No problem! Just pop in to town centre Dunnes to grab a pizza and a bottle of wine.
Val O’Shea’s. When it sells, the recession is over.
Val O’Shea’s
Ah, Val’s! The place to go in the early 90s if you were spotting talent. Great craic in its ‘live music and sawdust on the floor’ days.
Stylish when it was re-vamped later that decade too during the Celtic Tiger and added an upstairs bistro, where the food was always good.
Can someone please buy it, or lease it – at least re-open it? Then we’ll know the recession is really over.
Lee Records. The town’s last record shop. RIP.
Kiely’s/Lee Records
Tralee teenagers could happily while away an entire Saturday afternoon thumbing through the ‘LPs’ in Kiely’s or discussing music with Brian Lee, who later opened Lee Records, another popular gathering place for the town’s music lovers.
Brian loved talking music and never threw you out for lingering too long in the indie section on a rainy Saturday, even if you didn’t buy anything.
You’d even forgive him for stocking Daniel O’Donnell albums. Well, almost.
