Frankie hangs up scissors after 52 years
But now one of Cork’s most famous barbers has hung up his comb and scissors after over half a century in business.
Frank Forde, 66, known to generations of Corkonians as Frankie Forde, has retired and closed his men’s barber shop on Washington St after a career spanning almost 52 years. The closure marks the end of one of the city’s great institutions.
“I enjoyed most of it but the last year became a strain. The money went down and the blood pressure went up,” Frank said last night.
“I had 70 reasons for leaving and 66 of them were years. Every road has an ending, and every book has an ending. The time had come. It was time to go.”
But he declined to discuss his most famous customers — sports stars, business leaders and politicians — or dish the dirt on the stories he’s heard.
“I’ve cut a few famous heads alright but I’ll keep that secret,” he said. “I wouldn’t single out anyone. All my customers were famous and every fella paid for his haircut and left.”
Mr Forde, originally from Gurranabraher and who lives off the Model Farm Rd, began cutting hair aged 14, after landing a job as an apprentice with the late Hubert O’Donovan on 3 Washington St in 1960.
“The job was advertised on the Evening Echo and I knocked on his door and said I heard about the job,” he said.
“Hubert told me I was a bit small and to come back on Monday. And that was it. I went back on the Monday and was there for 19 years.”
When Mr O’Donovan died, his widow sold the building and the new landlord wanted the barber business out.
So in late 1979, Frank opened his own business nearby, Frank Forde’s Barber Shop, where he worked until last Saturday.
He rose at 6.30am to be in the shop ready to cut hair at 7.30am. He worked alongside Rose O’Flaherty and Winston Nash up to 10 hours a day, 50 hours a week, with Sundays and Mondays off.
“It was a good job, meeting people all the time,” he said.
“But it was a love hate relationship. You were very tied to it. It was very demanding, time-wise.
“You’d have to be there all the time and I took very few holidays.”
But trade has fallen steadily in recent years, fuelled in part by competition from suburban towns and city centre parking restrictions.
“Business is gone from the city centre,” he said.
“Saturday used to be our busy day but for the last two years, it became our quietest.
“Washington St was the gateway to the west and it used to be teeming with cars and people.
“But now, you could have a game of football on the street on a Saturday morning.”
The main drainage works and changes to the city centre streets didn’t help either, he said.
“There was a lot of arrogance in the way they [City Hall] did things. They did it their way. Everything was a short-term solution for their problems,” he said.
“They frightened people, especially a lot of country people, from coming to the city.”
Frank said he plans to enjoy his retirement with Marie, his wife of 41 years — the couple are off to Spain on holiday soon — and to spend more time with his children, Paul, Alan and Sinéad, and his grandchildren, Paul’s kids, Ryan, 9, and 14-month-old Olivia.
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