End of an era as Kelly’s Hardware pulls down shutters after 126 years

End of an era as Kelly’s Hardware pulls down shutters after 126 years

27 October 2021

IT’S the end of an era for Kelly’s Hardware in Downpatrick.

After 126 years of serving customers from the town and the wide Lecale area, the Market Street shop sadly pulled the shutters down for the final time on Saturday afternoon.

While it was hoped that a buyer could have been found for the store with its cornucopia of products and tools and countless other items that you just couldn’t get anywhere else, owner Eddie Fitzsimons has had to close due to his ill-health.

The 58 year-old and is friend and colleague, 83 year-old Oliver Tumelty, joined the store — once known as H W Kelly and Son — as young boys in their teens and ended up working there for the rest of their lives.

Together with shop assistants Morris Edgar and Tony Cheetham, the men have well over 100 years of experience of working in the much-loved shop.

Eddie said that while he had been holding a closing-down sale of the thousands of products in stock, it was time to close a bit earlier than he had planned.

The Raholp man said that he had once been destined for a trade as an electrician, explaining that unfortunately his apprenticeship had ended, forcing him to look for a job elsewhere.

“I was 18 and needed a job so I started with Fergus Kelly in 1980. I liked it, so I stayed. It was a good job and jobs were hard to get in those days,” said Eddie, who has owned the store for the past 15 years.

“I’ve always liked meeting with people and trying to help them. It’s been a great job.”

However, Eddie said that the decision to close was tough but he had to put his health first.

“After working in and owning the shop for a total of 40 years, it has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to decide,” he said. 

“I would like to thank each and every customer for shopping with me, for their loyalty and friendship. I would like to thank my suppliers as well, I have made many new friends in that time.

“Also I would like to give a big thank-you to all my loyal staff, past and present. Without their help, it would not have been possible.”

For Oliver Tumelty, it’s a sad end to his remarkable 66-year career working in the shop.

He has seen many changes in the stock over that time, from supplying mostly rural, farming customers, to supplying everything that a householder or small business owner could need.

“After 66 years it is very, very sad,” he told BBC NI. “I always actually looked forward to coming to my job.”

He told of how Mr Kelly had tasked him a few sums to do to test his maths skills before giving him the job.

“He told me he would give me two pound and ten shillings, that was good pay at the time. I never thought of moving on because we all seemed like a family here. I never got bored.”

Mr Tumelty said that one of his jobs in the early days was refilling individual wooden drawers were loose flower and vegetable seed would be stored loose.

Customers also used to call in to buy oil for their tilly lamps and all kinds of equipment was serviced at the shop.

Mr Tumelty added that the closure of the shop would leave local customers having to travel out of the town to buy certain hardware items.

However, he hopes to spend more time with his grandchildren and great-grandchild now.