Retail Shopping in Cork
The retail trade in Cork City is developing quickly with a mix of both modern, state of the art shopping centres and family owned local shops providing unique and often hand-made crafts. Department Stores can cater for all budgets, with expensive boutiques for one end of the market with many high street stores also available.
Shopping centres can be found in many of Cork's suburbs, including Blackpool, Ballincollig, Douglas, Wilton and Mahon. Others are available in the city centre, with plans and excavation work on-going for the development of three more large malls (The Cornmarket Centre on Cornmarket Street - Opening Autumn 2007; Academy Street proposal and the Grand Parade scheme planned for the site of the former Capitol Cineplex, the first multiplex outside of Dublin in Ireland), expanding the capacity of the city centre, to rival that of the suburbs.
Cork's main shopping street is St. Patrick's Street and is the most expensive street in the country per sq. metre after Dublin's Grafton Street. Other shopping areas in the city centre include Oliver Plunkett St. and Grand Parade. Cork is also home to some of the country's leading department stores with the foundations of shops such as Dunnes Stores and Roches Stores being laid in Cork City, the latter having sold its core business in 2006 to UK store chain Debenhams.
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Kinsale
It is no accident that Waterford Master-Cutter, Gerry Daly, chose the town of Kinsale, Irelands oldest town, to set up his Crystal Venture. Gerry longed to revive the formerly extinct method of Deep-Cutting. Long ago in Ireland, way before mass production swallowed up the small one man Crystal Craft Shops; every single piece was cut with pride on high angled wheels. This method was extremely tedious and painstakingly slow, but resulted in the most brilliant reflective sparkle and sharp, crisp feel. Armed only with a vision and a dream, in 1992 Gerry left Waterford and set off in search of a suitable location to fulfil his dream. When Gerry first entered Irelands Oldest Town, Kinsale, he knew immediately that the search was over. This fascinating, quaint, old world seaport with its narrow little streets and spectacular coastal scenery was the perfect setting for Gerry's project. Since then Kinsale Crystal has earned a high reputation among Crystal Buyers World-wide. Visitors to Kinsale can call in and see for themselves the Crystal being cut on the premises.
Youghal Pottery And Craft shop covers 2000 square feet and displays the best of Irish knits and textiles as well as a great variety of ceramics, which are made on the premises. They have been making pots in Youghal for 40 years, carrying on a 300 year old local tradition. Possibly the largest selection of pottery styles by one workshop in Ireland. The speciality is smoke fired Raku pottery, each piece is unique.
The tearoom overlooks the Blackwater River and has an adjoining Brick and Pottery heritage room with local artefacts and information. There is also a spacious car parking facility adjoining the main road.
Built in 1824, Blarney Woollen Mills was originally known as Mahony's Mills and provided valuable employment to the people of Blarney and surrounding areas. It was a water-powered mill and it produced tweeds and woollens for the home and export markets. In 1928, a boy of 13, like most of his friends in Blarney, began to work at Blarney Woollen Mills. His name was Christy Kelleher. Young Christy began work at the mill as an apprentice machinist and worked there for 22 years. He became a supervisor with responsibility for the day to day running and maintenance of the heavy industrial machinery. He was always very proud of the fact that during the war years when machine parts were not available, he improvised so well that 'his' machines never stopped. In 1951 Christy left to work with an insurance company in the city so that he could better provide for his family, but he was never a man to stand still and always had a little business going on the side. All of his seven children were encouraged to help him run his various ventures. He purchased the local cinema and turned it into a dance hall at weekends. He ran a hackney service and also had a 'vegetable round'. In 1967 he started a small souvenir shop in Blarney which he and some friends built as he did not have enough money to buy a property. (This 'thatched cottage on wheels' is on display in the grounds of the mill today.) Meanwhile, business at the Old Mill had started to decline and it finally wound down production and closed its doors in 1973. The huge stone buildings became bare and empty and the machines were dismantled and removed. Five hundred people lost their jobs. For two years the great mill lay silent and derelict. Nobody wanted it. Christy visited the site many times and slowly the germ of an idea began to grow - he would buy the buildings he had worked in as a boy and turn the mill into a visitor centre! He 'did a deal' with the auctioneers and placed a deposit on the Mill only to discover that the financial institutions did not share his enthusiasm. His requests for funds were refused. What a dilemma! The family agreed that drastic steps were necessary and between them raised the funds to purchase the Mill and later persuaded the banks to provide the working capital. Christy Kelleher was now the proud owner of the Woollen Mills where he had started his working life. One of the first things he did was to remove the big Iron Gate, which stood between the mill and the main road. All the employees of the Old Mills had only been allowed to enter through a side gate, and Christy was determined that the ordinary people would now be able to go through the main entrance. The souvenir business from the thatched cottage was transferred into the Mill and the remainder converted into an hotel, which was appropriately called Christy's.
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