It is noon in Tipperary town and the traffic jam on Main Street is an incongruous sight, given the local economic woes.
There was a time in rural Ireland when a town centre with cars bumper-to-bumper would have signified prosperity and bustling trade. Not so in Tipperary town, where the explanation is much more mundane.
Unlike many towns of its size, it has no bypass road and locals complain that the noise levels, dust and pollution are no compensation for the meagre economic boost sometimes provided by motorists stopping for a cup of coffee or lunch as they make their way elsewhere.
“We are a dying town in need of a bypass as well as heart surgery to rescue our town centre,” said a man, who did not want to be named, exhibiting the black humour that is sometimes a feature of observations made by local people.
He points to closed shops, those open and in need of painting, potholes that require what he describes as “proper filling rather than the current patchwork remedy”.
Just off Main Street, in Bank Place, it is business as usual in Caulfield’s SuperValu, but time is running out for the supermarket. It closed on Friday with a loss of 20 jobs. Management and staff say they are too upset to talk to the media.
Competition was stiff, from Tesco and Dunnes Stores on the Limerick road, and Aldi and Lidl in the town, a familiar story in many regional towns.
The closure follows the recent demise of Ideal Tailoring, with a history of a half-century of trading on Main Street.
“The SuperValu closure is about 20 people, 20 families, 20 mortgages and so on,” says local woman Caroline Baccache, who also speaks about the exodus of young people from the town because of the absence of jobs.
She says two of her children are emigrants, one in Canada and one in Wales. “When they come home on holidays, my children cannot wait to go back because there is nothing here. I used to cry when they went back, but I don’t cry anymore,” she adds.
Funding
Deirdre O’Dwyer, an official with South Tipperary Development Company, which receives European and Government funding and assists the long-term unemployed to get work, says the town has experienced a consistently high level of unemployment. The statistics are stark, with 1,600 people unemployed in a population of over 4,000. The unemployment rate in some areas is over 50 per cent.
“We need to attract foreign direct investment, similar to Clonmel and Cashel,” she adds. “Tipperary also needs to develop its tourism potential.”
She says some progress has been made, with the opening in recent months of a Supermac’s outlet and petrol station on the Limerick road, employing 30 people.
Company chairman Martin Quinn, a former national president of Muintir na Tíre and Tipperary person of the year, believes the situation is so serious that the town needs a Government-sponsored task force.
“There have been too many closures, too many losses,” he adds.
Businessman Barry Kingston, who has property rented to small businesses, says the closure is another symptom of the fallout from the economic recession. He points to other closures over the years, such as Atari, which manufactured gaming machines and once employed 300 people.
The building remains empty in Knockanrawley, on the southern side of the town, a poignant postscript to a once thriving industry.
Tambrands, which manufactured medical products, also closed with no replacement.
“And shops keep closing down,” he adds. “Nobody wants to open a business in this town because it is too risky and the overheads are too high.”
Some business people are more upbeat about the town’s future.
Eamonn Ryan, who has run the Porter House pub for the past 18 years, stresses the importance of not constantly portraying the town in a negative light. He talks about untapped tourism potential.
“Take the Glen of Aherlow, which compares to Connemara in its beauty,” he says. “We need to promote landmarks like that and improve signposting for visitors.”
Pharmacist and Chamber of Commerce chairman Shane Kelly also points to positives, noting that the independent farmers’ co-operative, with its headquarters in Bridge Street, is responsible for hundreds of jobs.
Tipperary town, he says, did well from decentralisation, with between 140 and 160 civil servants based there, although some already lived locally
Vibrant
Kelly, who moved to Tipperary from Wexford, believes the expectations of some local people are too high because of the memory of the glory days when it was a vibrant market town for west Tipperary and east Limerick.
“Many of the closed premises have been sold there are professional landlords and new businesses waiting to utilise them,” he adds. “Unfortunately, many of them are bank sales and the transactions are taking quite a while to complete.”
The folk memory of when this once most republican of towns was booming economically under British occupation is alive and well, with as many as 10,000 troops, some destined for service in the first World War, stationed there.
There is more dark humour. “That all ended in 1922,” says a local man. “Maybe the British should never have left.”
A couple on their way to have coffee in the bright and modern cafeteria in the Excel art and cultural centre, in Mitchel Street, believe their children will have to leave the town to find work if present trends continue.
There is a need, they say, to revive the spirit of a local hero, Msgnr John Hayes who served as parish priest in nearby Bansha and founded the rural development organisation Muintir na Tire.
Martin Quinn believes there is a strong community spirit which can be harnessed. “We have a lot to offer,” he says. “There is the Tipperary peace convention, which attracts international attention, the Canon Hayes sports centre is one of the best you will see in the country, as is our theatre and cinema complex, supported by the community.”
