By Paddy Walsh
RAYMOND McFadden remembers clearly the very first paying customer that strolled through the door of his newly opened premises over half a century ago.
“She was a woman who bought a pram off me. I knew her well, and her family, and that’s what started us off.”
Taking baby steps, as it were, as the McFaddens launched into business on the then thriving Main Street of Letterkenny with a nursery store.
That was in 1973 and the business continued to grow before eventually developing into McFadden’s Gift and Home that occupies the premises to this day but that will all change within the next few weeks following the announcement at the weekend of its closure.
“My son, Joe, put it up on Facebook at 8 o’clock on Sunday night and by 9 the following morning, there were 231 messages on it reacting to the news,” says Raymond.
Those messages portrayed a deep sense of sadness among those who frequented the popular business over many years.
The shop’s closure marks the end of an era in this part of the town and the feeling among many who have taken the time this week to pay tribute to the McFadden family is that more closures could follow.
“There have been a lot of changes on the Main Street,” Raymond said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen – the footfall is not there. But I hope that the surviving businesses continue to keep going.”
The McFaddens will, of course, continue to run their successful venture at Breenagh, Letterkenny, established by Raymond’s father, Gerard.
“My dad died of cancer at the age of 43 in 1960 and at the time I was a 15 year old student at St. Eunan’s College. I left the College and joined the family business.
“Dad has always wanted to start a business in Letterkenny itself and there was a vacant site belonging to David Ramsay on Upper Main Street and I bought it off him.
“And it lay there vacant from the time I bought it in 1966 to 1972 when I got married to my wife, Sheila.”
The birth of their youngest son prompted them to open a nursery shop – McFaddens had arrived on the main thoroughfare. And for fifty-two years has been a mainstay at the heart of the town.
Not the first time, a McFadden had established a concern on the Main Street – Raymond’s uncle, Manus, having run the Cleanswell operation further down the street.
Prior to the opening of the nursery shop, Raymond recalls the building contract being offered to John McCrossan. “He came in here in the last week in August and was gone the following May. And from the day he came in to do the work to this day there has never been anything wrong with the building.”
Raymond’s mother, Pauline, resided in the premises until her passing in 2002 after which it became a storage space.
His three sons, Gerard, Joseph, and Fergal are all involved in the family business – each of them coming from engineering backgrounds.
“They have been brilliant and we’ve always had a great staff working here over the years. And we’ll be sorry for our present staff, Louise, Tracy and Ann, here when we shut up shop. My wife, Sheila, has also been a hugely important part of the business.
“We’ve had unbelievably loyal customers too since we opened here and we’ll miss them as well.”
And those same customers will undoubtedly miss McFaddens Gift and Home shop once the key is turned for the final time.
This week they have been streaming into the shop to wish the McFaddens well and bemoan the pending closure.
For now it’s time to reflect and remember a business that performed an important role in the centre of Letterkenny.
In the season that’s in it, Raymond recalls one humorous story that still makes him laugh out loud. “A man came into the shop one Christmas Eve and said he wanted to buy a pram for his niece.
“He duly did but some weeks later, the niece came in and not alone was she not married but she wasn’t expecting a baby either!
“I don’t think she took the pram but she did take the receipt as far as I remember.”
On Tuesday afternoon, as the bargain hunters search for a final purchase from the selection of stock still available, a row of clocks of various shapes and sizes occupy one of the shelves.
But sadly now the years have wound down and old Father Time has caught up with this iconic Letterkenny outlet.
