How are you coping in Oldcastle?

JOHNNY GUIRKE TD

I’m just settling in to the new job. Up to fairly lately I was working in the building and being a councillor. My area is Meath West is huge so I have set up an office in Castlepollard to serve the Westmeath end of the constituency and I will have an office in Trim shortly. One of the first problems I come across here is the lack of good broadband coverage so I normally go into Castlepollard to do my constituency work and deal with matters there.  I have a secretarial assistant who will split his time between the two office and deal with administration. The biggest barrier to get day-to-day work done is Covid-19. Because there’s an awful lot of people you can’t meet because of Covid, you have to make do with the phone, emails and zoom. The issues that we campaigned on in the General Election, like the future of Navan hospital, the railway between Navan and Dublin and the underfunding of the local authority are all in the front of my mind. The Covid has added to the number of queries coming into the office. We would have about 100 queries  a week at the moment and I’m sure that will go on for some time. Myself and Darren O’Rourke in Meath East work very well together in the interests of the whole county. The Cocid crisis is affecting everything  but the number of volunteers offering to help out is tremendous and I have to mention the GAA clubs in this regard. They are just outstanding.

Oldcastle.

GERRY MCDERMOTT MENSWEAR

We certainly haven’t seen anything like this in my lifetime. The shop is open 60 years and I took over from my father 35 years ago. We closed on St Patrick’s weekend.  Our daughter had to have a test leading up to that and luckily she was clear. We had to self-isolate but we were closing within a few days anyway. The whole situation is unreal. I’m self-employed and my wife Carmel works with me part-time. I find it all so unusual –I can’t remember  taking a week off in 30 year. It’s a complete change of life for me. Behind all of that, at least we are fit and healthy and we can cope but I feel for other people who are in worse conditions. We’re closed 12 weeks now and, you know, you don’t get that money back. I’m lucky enough in that I have a farm and a garden and I’m chairperson of the Tidy Towns Committee so that keeps me going. And we’re v ery lucky with the weather – I can’t remember when we last had a Spring like this with such a stretch of unbroken good weather. We don’t know what’s happening in the future. There are still some fixed costs to be paid and then we have Spring and Summer stock that’s not sold but the suppliers will be looking for their money.

JUSTIN BURKE BARBERS

I’m in business in Oldcastle for 14 years. I’m originally from Ballymun, Dublin and opened the business before I bought my house in Ballyjamesduff. I work the business with one full-time staff member. I’m closed eight weeks now and they’re talking about reopening on 20th of July. But that’s only a target date. I can actually see it going into August. The loss of business is only part of it. The lack of interaction between ourselves and the customers is huge. I sponsor Oldcastle United team and a lot of the lads would come in. The loss of social aspect is very important.  It’s a huge part of life. Lads would come in and you’d hear a lot of their day-to-day problems. You’re like a barman – you hear a lot of the problems they have but you don’t offer an opinion.  It’s important for men’s health. Myself and Shane Farrelly set up a group for over-35s and we try to keep in touch with Whatsapp. I have my wife and kids in Ballyjamesduff but I have another extended family here in Oldcastle in the number of lads who come in to me. When we eventually come back, there’s going to be major disruption with the operation of social distancing and all that. It’s going to affect businesses in a severe way. You’ll have landlords who will be great and will take into account the circumstances of businesses but there’ll be other landlords who will be looking for their money even though the businesses haven’t been able to operate. I just miss the whole interaction of the thing. I’, all over the shop myself and I’m trying to do a bit of gardening and doing a bit of gardening for other people.

DONNA MCQUAID, PHARMACIST

I’m from a place called Tempo in Co Fermanagh and moved to Oldcastle in 2001. We have seven full-time and part-time staff. We could see when the virus was coming out of China it would only be a matter of time before it hit us. We put precautions in straight away, with social distancing, signage and all the rest of it. We do deliveries to vulnerable people. Now we had volunteers to help us but we do a lot of the deliveries ourselves. I’ve been up and down good roads, bad roads, bog roads, valleys and hills of Co Meath and Co Cavan. There was panic at the beginning. In fact, some people thought we would be closed but we’re an essential service and that was never going to happen.  We had always done emergency calls or out-of-hours service so we had no problem with that. There’s no doubt that many people are worried. Sme people have lost their jobs and we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. I think the Government has done a fantastic job, We have now flattened the curve. I have a husband and three children. My husband is a great support – in fact I’ve roped him in to do deliveries. I’m just glad I still have a business and I’m able to open my doors. I look up and down the street and see the number of businesses that have had to close. It must be very difficult for people.

PETER CAFFREY FURNITURE

We have stopped manufacturing except for a contract we’re doing fo Meath County Council. All furniture shops are closed so there’s mo point in making stuff that the shops can’t take. We will have to wait for the opening of the shops before anything happens. In any case, we wouldn’t be able to get raw material for manufacturing.  We’re waiting to see what happens on the 18th and whether shops will be allowed to open. There should be more clarification on that. We have 55 staff and everyone has been laid off. It’s very difficult for  everybody.  We’re  40 years in business and we have never seen anything like this. What am I doing at the moment? I’m ringing people up for a chat and I watched the 1997 rerun of the Meath versus Kildare football, that’s about it. Everybody is waiting for clarification about what happens next.

DECLAN FLOOD, BUTCHER

Can you ring me back at 1.30 [fist phone call was made at 10.30], we’re run off our feet here trying to get out orders. [1.30pm] That’s better, it’s calmed down a bit. We stayed open fropm the beginning [of Covid] and we’re working extra hours to cope with the amount of work. There was a huge increase in trade. People are sending in orders by phone from all over the place – they’re coming from Oldcastle but from Cavan, Westmeath and some people have even phoned orders in from Dublin. They’re filling in their freezes out there. People are afraid out there and they’re pulling up outside the shop and won’t leasve their cars so we bring the order out to them. We’re open since 1973 and it all started up with my father Johnny. We’re a family business and myself and my b rother Martin run it. There are five of us in the shop and we have our own slaughterhouse an d we buy from local farmers. We have our regular customers but we have seen a huge increase in trade – it seems that some people have moved away from the supermarkets and are turning to the smaller local butcher. We’ll take it all. I have my own farm and 50 cows to look after. 

CONCEPTA SMITH, TIGER LILY BOUTIQUE

I run the shop myself and I had to close from 17th March. There was no point in staying open because Oldcastle was like a ghost town. I opened in 2006 but then we had the recession after that. And that was fairly tough. We’re all in the same boat with this crisis. You don’t know when you’ll be able to reopen and then whether people will have any money to spend. I think there will be a lot of uncertainty when this is over. Then we will be wondering is the virus will come back. We’ll be wondering when people will be able to go out for a Saturday night for a bit of a social life and will they have money to spend on outfits for weddings, funerals, First Communions. I’m hoping to reopen myself  but I know things will be very tight. It’s just a waiting game at the moment. When the shop is open I’d have Sunday and Monday off, Now I just do things around the house but I go for a 10-mile walk around Loughcrew every day.

EUGENE SMITH, DUBLIN BAR

I’m working in construction myself and because I’m looking after the international side of the company’s trade I’m still in work. My parents Owen and Patricia bought the pub 41 years ago and they made a great job of it. It has won many awards including Black and White Pub of the Year. They just  don’t know what is going to happen. Will the pubs be reopened on a phased basis? We don’t know. The idea of operating social distancing in a country pub is a hell of a lot different to operating it in a city pub. The rural pubs have already been going downhill, I don’t know what Covid will do to them. My parents are going up and down to the pub every day, keeping it maintained and planting a few flowers. When things come back to normal the Government is going to have to look at reducing the excise duty on alcohol and reducing VAT. People are already going to supermarkets to buy alcohol so I don’t know whether they will return to the pub.