THE PEOPLE behind the campaign to prevent the closure of Bewley’s Cafe on Dublin’s Grafton Street are turning their attention to under-threat Woolworths stores in the North.
About 200 jobs are reportedly at risk in Northern Ireland after debts forced the chain to go into administration.
Woolworths, which once had branches in the Republic, has retained shops across the North including in cities close to the Border, such as Newry and Derry, which are increasingly frequented by shoppers from the Republic.
The stores are known as Woolies to those who have fond memories of purchasing pick’n’mix sweets, chart-topping single records and school stationary there as children.
But Damien Cassidy, of the National Conservation and Heritage Group, which evolved from the Save Bewley’s Cafe Campaign, insists he is not being motivated by nostalgia.
“Woolworths is the heart of the main street in towns like Enniskillen, where my father was from. I worry a lot about people who have worked there for many years, like the people who worked in Bewleys.”
Mr Cassidy said Woolworths was of particular importance to older people who liked to shop in a place they trusted and deal with staff they knew.
Mr Cassidy was active in the Bewley’s Cafe Campaign, established after the Grafton Street premises closed in November 2004. It reopened in May 2005.
