Behind the scenes at Pro Musica: Eileen Madden on the changes at one of Cork's last music stores
Eileen Madden behind the counter at Pro Musica on Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork. Picture: Chani Anderson
Though she’s “passed retirement age”, Eileen Madden, owner of music shop Pro Musica on Oliver Plunkett Street shows no signs of slowing down. She’s run the popular music shop since 1982, when she first rented the ground floor of the shop from McCullough Piggot, itself a music store where Madden used to work.
“Things were quiet in Cork at the time and McCullough Piggot pulled out in March 1982. I said to them I’d rent the ground floor. I offered them £12,000 a year, which was a lot of money back then.”
Two years later, McCullough Piggot decided to sell the building, and Madden, who is originally from the Kinsale Road in Cork, was determined to buy it. “I definitely overpaid for it. I paid around £80,000 and had a huge mortgage, but I knew I could make a success of it.”
Over 40 years later Pro Musica is, by any measure, a Cork institution. From its location at 20 Oliver Plunkett Street, it caters to music enthusiasts, professionals, students from the nearby Cork School of Music, and the odd well-known face.
“We used to have a back door, leading out to the back of Crane Lane. It was general knowledge I suppose. But one day I was in the shop and who walked in through the back door only Jerry Lee Lewis. How he knew about the door I don’t know, but there he was, looking for a strap for a guitar.”
Local celebrities are also regular customers, like Cian Ducrot, who spent hours in the shop as a child because his mother was a teacher at the School of Music. Even then, Eileen Dennehy said there was “something about him”. “I knew back then that he’d make it big someday. And he did. He still pops in all the time now.”
Cillian Murphy is another regular customer. “Last Christmas, he was in buying gifts for all his nephews and nieces; he bought them all a musical instrument,” recalls Dennehy.
Back in the day, Madden says Gay Byrne used to pop in every time he was in Cork. “His wife Kathleen was a harpist and he used to come in and buy her a new book any time he was in town.”
When Madden first took the helm, there were 11 music stores in the city. Pro Musica is now one of just two still standing. Its success must in part be attributed to Madden and the trusted team she surrounds herself with — her son Luke and long-time friend and shop manager Eileen Dennehy, who has been working in the shop nearly as long as Madden herself.
Together, they have created a “family vibe” says Leon Regan Edwards, who has worked in Pro Musica for the past two years. Madden employs 11 full-time and part-time staff, who work over the two shop floors (a third floor is reserved for classes and repairs).
The shop is a cornucopia of musical instruments and accessories. The ground floor is dedicated to the traditional instruments — from bodhráns to tin whistles. It is also home to the shop’s vast collection of books — music exams, how-to-play books, and books with original sheet music for any instrument you can think of.
Upstairs is where “the cool stuff is” says Regan Edwards. The walls are lined with guitars — acoustic, classical, electric – from brands like Fender, Martin, Aria, Tanglewood, Ibanez and Schecter. At any given time in the shop, you’ll hear someone strumming away on a guitar. That’s because this is a tactile purchase, says Madden, people want to sit down and see how the guitar feels.
“Especially the younger people, for your very first instrument, you want the whole experience of coming in to look at the different ones. It’s a lovely experience.”
Because of the longevity of the shop, Madden says they’re now seeing original customers coming in with their children, helping them to pick their first instrument, whether that be a guitar, a violin, or a piano. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find an instrument Pro Musica doesn’t stock.
“People look for all kinds of instruments, from an Appalachian dulcimer to a sitar, the uilleann pipes to a saxophone. Guitars are, of course, one of the more popular instruments, but during tourist season we do a brisk trade in tin whistles!”
While much hasn’t changed about the stock of Pro Musica over the years, the nature of how they sell that stock has evolved. In 2004, Madden launched the Pro Musica website. “We started small with only a few instruments on the site. Over the years, it’s expanded to thousands and thousands of instruments, and all our books and accessories. Today, it’s an essential part of the business; we couldn’t survive without it.”
With floor space tight, the website is a useful tool to showcase larger instruments like electric pianos and drum kits. “We wouldn’t be able to fit too many of those larger instruments in the shop, they’d take up too much space. So that’s a great plus.”
Madden also uses the website to ship stock all over the country, opening Pro Musica up to a wider customer base. “Just today I got a message from a customer in Dublin who’d just received the €4,000 Martin guitar they bought from our website.”
But while the internet and the website is vital to her business, Madden says competing directly with “all the giants” is a difficult balancing act.
“They're able to buy in bulk and reduce the prices. For us, that means we must try and keep everything they have in stock too, as much as we can. Our warehouse in Carrigaline is bursting. We have to keep every single guitar, for example, from the budget range right up to the four or five grand range. Which means we have to invest in all that and sit on it, just so we can compete.
"And then the profit margin is being squeezed all the time. Years ago, when I took over in 1982 there was a very decent profit margin. I bought less and made more. Now, it’s the complete opposite.”
Despite the challenging trading conditions, Madden wouldn’t be anywhere else. She’s on the floor of the shop every day and relishes the interactions with her customers. In fact, dealing with people is her favourite part of the day.
“I had a woman in here yesterday who was buying a clarinet. They’re a tricky instrument, with so many moving parts and springs. If you put it together incorrectly you can make a complete mess of it. I had to show her how to take it apart and put it back together, and that took me the bones of an hour, but that’s what it’s all about. You have to be able to do that for your customers, otherwise what’s the point?”
Madden’s brain is a font of knowledge. A cello player, although she only plays “at weddings and funerals nowadays”, she understands and loves music, and over the years she has expanded that knowledge. This love and interest in music is a common trait shared by the other staff members. While the staff will generally float to where they’re needed at any given time, most employees have specialist knowledge of certain instruments and equipment.
A growing area of business is instrument repair, says Madden. This ranges from “on-the-spot” repairs for simple things like replacing strings on a violin, to more complex fixes for specialist woodwind instruments. Her son Luke handles most of the repairs, but other staff members take on specific jobs where needed.
Helping customers is a core part of Pro Musica’s identity, whether that’s helping them choose their first instrument, showing them how to use it, or repairing it when it’s broken. It’s in the DNA of the shop.
“There’d be lads out busking and they might break a string on their guitar. They’d run into us looking for a new string but mightn’t have the money to pay for it there and then. Sure, we’d always help out, and they’d always come back to us at the end of the day, when they had earned the money,” says Dennehy.
Leon Regan Edwards, from Buttevant in North Cork, has been working at Pro Musica for a little over two years. “I did my TY work experience here first, then when I was in college I worked here part-time before moving to full-time.”
He completed a masters in music and technology at MTU Cork School of Music and will often use the skills he learned during his course in his day-to-day job.
Madden calls Regan Edwards an “all-rounder” but over his time working at the shop he’s honed his skills, particularly when it comes to sales and instrument repair.
“I started off on general sales but as Eileen could see more of what I could do, I began doing more repairs on the floor — those fairly handy, same-day repairs like re-stringing or fixing bridges on violins.
"But then, it got around that I played the saxophone — I was in the brass band in the School of Music for six months — and that’s why they started trusting me with brass and woodwind instruments.”
He’s no slouch in the sales department either. Based mainly on the second floor with the guitars, amps and drums, Regan Edwards has a clear passion for guitars. “I started working with this rep last year on two brands — Laney and Ibanez. In the space of about eight or nine months myself and the rep brought Pro Musica to the top sellers of those brands in the country. When you have an interest and a passion for certain brands, selling them comes easy.”
Problem-solving is what drives Regan Edwards. “My favourite part of the job is when people come in with an instrument problem to be solved. And that could be anything, from someone coming in going ‘I want to sound like Metallica’ and I’ll look at what they have and suggest adding this or that and say ‘now, here’s your Metallica sound’.
"Or someone coming in saying ‘I want to be able to play these kinds of songs’ and I’ll work with them to find the right guitar for them. Or someone comes in with work that needs to be done to an instrument, the challenge is getting that done. It’s problem-solving through instruments I suppose.”
Eileen Dennehy, or 'D' as she is commonly known, is from Glasheen in Cork, and has worked in Pro Musica for “a long, long time”. As the shop manager, she’s a fixture on the ground floor and will often be the first person people see coming into the shop.
“I started off here working in accounts in the early days of the shop. But I used to sneak down to the shop floor every chance I got. I just loved the people and dealing with the customers. Eventually I moved into the shop and now I look after a lot of the online sales, and all the problems or queries, which could be in-person, over the phone, or online.”
Although the website is a growing channel for the shop, Dennehy says people still want that personal advice when it comes to buying instruments. “I do find they'll ring and ask your advice about what they're going to buy. Are they buying the right thing? So, it's great platform for selling, yes, but a lot of the time they still come in personally.”
Dennehy also looks after the thousands of books in the shop. “I buy all the books in. We have a couple of thousand here in the shop, I’d say. A lot of them are the exam books, and then we’ve got the traditional and classical, and all kinds of popular music. I suppose, when you’re doing something a long time it’s second nature really; someone would come in looking for music from a certain composer or instrument and I’d know straight away if we have that book and where it is.”
For Dennehy, her favourite part of the job has always been the people. “I love chatting to people. You know, people could tell you their life story there and then behind the counter. And, you know, we have our repeat customers, our regulars who we see a lot. You get to know them and their kids, and it just grows from there, you know, it’s lovely.”
