Iconic business closes on Bloomsday

A Dublin business which once employed James Joyce as a sales agent is closing its doors for good this evening — ironically on Bloomsday, when Joyce is remembered on an annual basis.

The Dublin Woollen Mills has been on Lower Ormond Quay since 1931 and, before moving there, was sited on nearby Bachelor’s Walk since 1881.

The haberdashery shop, located close to the Ha’Penny Bridge, has been on the market for weeks.

Valerie Roche, who runs the fabric, trimmings, woollen, and tweed shop which is also a wholesaler, is closing the doors for good at end of business today. She said: “I’m very sad to see it close. We’re not doing it out of immediate financial necessity, but we can see the end coming. We always traded within our means, unlike many businesses in the current climate. We came from a different business mindset.”

On the wall of Ms Roche’s second floor office, a large glass picture frame houses photographs of Joyce, along with a letter from the Ulysses author to the firm. She laughed: “To be honest, he wasn’t a great salesman but, yes, he did work for the company for a good while. He was living in Trieste in Italy and used to give samples to Nora and to his students there. But I don’t think we ever got a lot of orders through him, although we certainly did get some.”

Ms Roche has been working hard to wind up the business and is satisfied all of her staff have been looked after and given a good severance package.

“We managed to fix some of them up with other jobs. But I can’t help thinking about what sort of an economy we are creating when a business like ours is being ignored. I thought long and hard about closing the doors, and I thought it best to do it when we could do it honourably. That’s the difference between our old-style business and the other ones around today.

“All of our suppliers have also been paid off as well. It’s being done properly... At one stage, we used to have three shops. We had 17 staff up to now and we’ll have a little celebration for them all some time in the coming weeks.

“In some way, I don’t think we ever managed to shake off the old image of the Aran sweaters that we stocked from the 70s.

“We used to really deal in Irish tweed. I remember people coming up from the country all the time to get tweed samples to have a suit made. We were called ‘the tweed place’. We had a huge range.”

Ms Roche added: “I’m retiring completely from this sort of work. I spent some time years ago working with overseas aid charities and I plan to go and work with them again.”

The Dublin Woollen Mills remains a landmark site in the capital, especially with the sculpture of two women shoppers chatting on a seat outside.