Some of my very earliest memories are of visiting Mary Cronin’s shop clambering to have a look over the counter, as we got the Cork Examiner, big bags of flour and other bits and pieces. It seemed that Mary was sitting patiently there forever, … for well before my time anyhow. Her gentle smile seemed everpresent, and the shop like a gateway into the past(, and not forgetting her able assistant Pat Joe Kelleher either). But all good things come to an end and the shop was closed in 2004, and Mary herself passed away in February 2014.
A few weeks ago, a for sale sign appeared over the shop and it featured on the Irish Examiner with some nice photos of the shop, which remains as it was when it was still in use and still evokes the memories.
The house/shop is being marketed as a starter home, with a market price of €60,000, but one one word of note to a prospective buyer (and I would hope the auctioneers pass on the information) is that that Cork County Council have a listed the shop and the frontage as a protected structure. (see the Cork County Council Record of Protected Structures from 2009)
[added on 24th Sept (mdc): Dick Pomeroy & Co. Auctioneers & Valuers who are handling the sale have let us know in the comments below it is included with full details in their promotional literature. The full list of their Lots for Sale is on daft.ie].
We posted the article on Facebook a few weeks ago (and forgot to put it on here) and there were more nice comments as people remembered. See the comments here.
The article on the Irish Examiner can be read here. Photos below are from the article in the Irish Examiner.
I was delighted to see “Cronin’s Paper Shop” on the Millstreet website, many thanks. However I would like to point out it is printed on all my promotional material regarding the shop that “it is a protected structure both internal and external”. Therefore all perspective purchasers have been informed of same.
Sorry Catherine, I didn’t mean to single you out in any way, but it was one of the first things that struck me about the article on the paper that it wasn’t mentioned. Most people wouldn’t know that much of Main Street is listed, and sole intention was to inform people.
I’d be delighted if someone bought it to live in it. Too many of us are out in the edges of town, and I think it’s important to have people actually living in the town. If you remember back to when we were young, there were people living in most houses in town, and shopkeepers families lived over the shops, but that has changed somewhat now.
There is no harm done. Like yourself I would love to see it occupied, especially as a retail unit with an owner/occupier residing there. The new owners will have a hard act to follow to be as pleasant as the late Mary Cronin & Pat Joe Kelleher R.I.P. I am grateful for the coverage on the property from The Millstreet Website.