Store owner remains upbeat

“IT looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off, it looked like Hiroshima.”

That was John O’Riordan’s reaction after the 65-year-old owner of the Coffeequip store awoke to find his livelihood devastated by the flooding deluge.

After visiting a friend in Midleton, east Cork, on Thursday evening the businessman was assured his premises on the Western Road were safe from any potential damage.

He and his wife Teresa believed that, as there had never been flood problems before, their business was safe. They were wrong.

When the parents of five daughters awoke on Friday and heard the weather alerts, they rushed to their livelihood of 22 years and found it submerged under four feet of water.

The couple — who also supply coffee products to local companies — have lost at least €70,000 worth of coffee, tea, sugar and office products to the floods, and expect to be out of business until February.

“We’ve got very little left, we really have. Almost everything was on the shop floor,” John explained.

“On the Friday morning we couldn’t drive anywhere near the store so we had to walk through the water.

“We didn’t get in until 2pm and when we did everything was floating along in the water. The chairs, tables, products, they were all destroyed.

“It’s absolute bedlam. At the minute I have some stock at home and a little bit upstairs, but other than that we don’t have much left,” he said.

However, the O’Riordans are not dispirited by the tragic consequence of the floods.

Since the store opened in 1987, John said the couple have had “a good run of business”.

The couple still have their health and their five adult daughters. They’re keen to stay positive.

“It is frustrating, of course it is, but we’ve had a good run over the last few years. You have to look at the positives because otherwise you’ll cry,” he said.