Narraghmore: More than just a cross-roads village

Sinead Pullen at The Old Hardware.

It was 2017 and the members of the Narraghmore Development Association were thinking about the fact that few people were visible on the street of the village during daytime, writes Brian Byrne. There was little reason for them to come.

"The hardware shop and grocery store which had been operated by the Kelly family was closed down when they sold up in 2005," says the Association's Sinéad Pullen, originally a member of the local Leigh family, who came back some 13 years ago after almost two decades in the UK. "The only place open besides the Credit Union was Kathleen Hickey's Post Office and shop, and she was getting ready to retire."

The former hardware building beside Melanie Treacy's pub was by then a sad sight. Mel had bought the pub and the building in the meantime, and was only too happy to help out if there was some way to bring it to life. "When it was originally open as a hardware, there would be people in and out all day," says Sinéad. "It was a meeting point, people would come in to chat."

That last became the project's starting point. To be a tea room cafe where people could come in meet and talk, to meet a social need. But to get funding for that, there had to be a reasonably strong economic case. Would it be likely that an application to the Town and Village Renewal Scheme might be favourably received?

"We put in an expression of interest and got a positive response," says Sinéad. "We did some research into community shops, and though there weren't many in Ireland at the time there had been some really extensive research in the UK which showed that community shops in rural communities had a 95pc survival rate, against around 60pc for commercial shops. That was because there was general buy-in from the community, who needed the shops."

In 2018 Sinéad and another member of the Association went on a Social Enterprise course provided by the Kildare Leader Partnership, and as part of that they developed a business plan for the project. "The course actually forced us to do that," Sinéad recalls. "We did a lot of our market research, working out what area we could cover."

At the time the population of Narraghmore itself was around 800, but there was a potentially much larger hinterland, with the nearest shop to the south being at Fontstown, and similar distances in other directions. "We crunched the numbers, and the project cost would be around €100,000, which we applied for. We got €80,000 from Town and Village Renewal, raised €10,000 with local fundraising, and the remaining €10,000 came in by way of a five-year rent 'holiday' courtesy of Mel." At the same time, confirmation of the closure of Kathleen Hickey's shop and post office was announced.

"Everybody got in behind the fundraising. The local drama enthusiasts staged Jimmy Keary's 'The Maiden Aunt' in Mel's Pub, and Mel ran a Christmas Dinner fundraiser and we did Table Quizzes. We went around to houses looking for whatever they could give, and businesses also donated. We actually exceeded our €10,000 target."

It took a year to get the building sorted, engaging architects and arranging tenders for the work. A local builder was successful, 'that was fantastic, he could be very flexible', and many people helped out with their particular skills, including Austin Egan of Appleton Property who provided valuations without charging. On 17 August 2019, Deputy Martin Heydon cut the ribbon to officially open the enterprise. The Old Hardware name was decided after a local poll hadn't come up with anything else that reflected the building's heritage.

"We knew that it would create a little bit of a buzz, but to be honest we didn't expect it to be as successful as it was," Sinéad says. "The main thing was that it would be a social point for people, with an emphasis on quality, home baking in the cafe. We're not trying to do anything on a massive scale."

Joanne Swartz serving customer Kathleen Hickey, for whom the shop is named.

With Kathleen Hickey's post office closed, a 'Kathleen's Corner' shop for basic necessities was set up in one section. It even has Kathleen's old till, 'so when anything goes wrong with it, we can call her'. Kathleen herself is a regular customer. During the latter half of 2019 and into early 2020 the cafe became a focal point on Thursday mornings for local Seniors, who could enjoy tea and scones and chat in all the time they wanted.

The operation is managed by about 40 volunteers, while three Community Employment Scheme workers keep a day to day consistency in personnel. "We set up an Old Hardware sub-committee within the Association and we have teams to do different things, staffing the cafe and shop, looking after the administration, one team comes in on Tuesday nights to do baking. And we also get help from other groups, like Transition Year students."

Louise McGough and Angela Fennin with coffee and cakes.

Sinéad cites the camaraderie between everyone as a key reason for the success of the enterprise, as well as the rapport which everyone has with the customers. "We even have some volunteers from well outside the area, and we get visitors in from outside too, which is great. We operate absolutely as a high-quality community business, and everyone involved is very proud to be part of it."

Like the rest of cafe hospitality, the Old Hardware had to close its tables during the heights of the covid restrictions, but maintained a collect service for coffee and cakes. "That kept us in touch with people, and it was great for those who were now locally working from home ... they could take five minutes off and walk up to get their coffee and a break. We also did a 'scones drop' every week to our local seniors, to let them know that someone was thinking of them, and having a chat from the gate."

The operation had also won a designation as one of the county's Cycle Cafes, and that brought some more regular takeaway business during the closures. "The cyclists are really a great group to have, great fun."

Last month, the Old Hardware reopened for outdoor service, and hopefully the inside space will be available again from early July. In the meantime another original objective is getting ready for the summer season, exhibits of local craft work for sale. "We originally thought we'd have room for them to work from here, but in the end it just wasn't there. We're hoping to set up Saturday demonstration events when things loosen up some more. But that side of things worked out very well at Christmas, with people buying crafts and candles for presents."

It has been a very start-stop-start time since the Old Hardware opened in 2019, with six months open then, six months in 2020, but now there's the hopeful prospect of a full operation soon. Narraghmore may be a small cross-roads village not on the main road to anywhere, but it's a cross-roads with a very special buzz.

NOTE: This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

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