After so many years of no-can-do, it is heartening this week to learn that there is actually something we can do about the many current issues affecting us, if we simply put our minds to it. One major asset at stake here is family businesses, or more pertinently, the future of family businesses, which according to one third-generation businessman in Castlebar is now in serious jeopardy.
However according to Colm Hynes of the Hynes Shoes chain, featured in our 'Shooting the Breeze' page this week, there is a way of preventing extinction of generation-to-generation handed down family concerns. The answer is simply for local people in the area to get out and support them. Alternatively, failing to do so could mean that every shopping town worth its salt in Ireland will end up looking exactly the same; a homogenous version of UK high streets where outlets of the same multinationals trade alongside each other turning every man, woman, and child into a mirror image of one another.
Compare this situation to the one highlighted in the excellent RTE documentary The Commute in recent weeks, which showed a sample of five or six people from Ireland right now, who are commuting not only long distances on a daily/weekly basis to work, but travelling overseas to jobs as far afield as London. Those profiled in the documentary testified to the fact that it is possible, but extremely gruelling, to work so far from home and yet, on some level, remain living at home too.
Particularly inspiring was the mother of seven children from Kerry, newly upskilled as a midwife, whose husband's haulier business had taken a nosedive. With the moratorium on recruitment in the HSE forcing her to look for work beyond the horizon, demand for her services in the UK National Health Service meant she ended up taking a job which had her flying the coop on a weekly basis, each time enduring the heartbreak of another parting from her children.
A Meath footballer and teacher who also featured on The Commute was shown travelling over and back on a weekly basis, not only for the purpose of work, but also in order to continue playing with his county team at the weekends in between helping his dad on the family farm. Somehow, while across the water he also managed to fit some serious weekly training in, so much so that he was more than able to play his part in helping his team remain the winning side in the ongoing league matches.
The efforts made by these commuters, as evidenced in the documentary presented by David McWilliams, would put any of us to shame. No matter how stuck we may feel or suffocated by circumstances surrounding family, children, bricks, mortar, and relationships, these ties that bind can be loosened through compromise of some sort. We can all do something about our situation – no matter how bad it might be. The mistake many make is to expect that someone else will do that something for them. They won't.
So back to the family businesses and the future thereof; while generation after generation may have invested time, effort, and money into keeping the business ticking over, to the upcoming generation, without evidence of new opportunities, the importance of continuing to invest in these homegrown assets may not seem so obvious. If shoppers become so fickle that buying cheap and cheerful at every new bargain basement becomes their modus operandi, these long-standing traditional business families in the town, whose local knowledge of the market, people, town, and place over the years have become part and parcel of their unique offering, may very well depart our main shopping streets. Good to know it is in our power to stop this from happening, if we simply choose to exercise it.
Sea to Summit
The Mayo Advertiser extends best wishes this week to the 1,000-plus participants taking part in the gruelling Sea to Summit Westport-to-Croagh Patrick challenge. A large contingent of local people are entered into the event, showing that the powerful resource of physical fitness is being well harnessed in the county. Good luck to all.
