Shop owners thank local community with the ‘gift of life’

The owners of a family-run shop have presented the local community with a defibrillator.

The life-saving device was handed over to the Glounthaune Community Association by the owners of Fitzpatrick’s shop in Glounthane, just outside Cork City, on Saturday.

It will be mounted on the wall of the shop and training will be provided to community volunteers over the coming weeks.

The presentation marked the culmination of the shop’s year-long 70th anniversary celebrations.

Martin O’Neill and his wife Geraldine, who run Fitzpatrick’s, organised a range of events during the year, including raising about €5,000 for repairs to the Glounthaune Community Centre.

Other events included the sponsoring of a board detailing the history of the cemetery in Caherlag, as well as organising a family fun day in September in Craig’s Field, next to the village.

Martin and Geraldine’s daughter, Kerri, who manages the shop, said the 70th birthday had provided a great opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported the business over the years, and that the defibrillator was a gift to the entire community.

Fitzpatrick’s was built as a house for Jeremiah and Kate O’Connell in the 1930s.

A front room in the house served as a small shop from which food, hardware, and fuel was sold.

In 1939 Jeremiah went to England as a war correspondent and Kate moved to Ballincollig to live with her sister, putting the house up for rent.

In 1941, Margaret Fitzpatrick, originally from Kinsale but living in Dublin, was visiting her sister Kitty, who was teaching in Belvelly, Cobh, when she saw a ‘for rent’ sign in the shop window as she travelled on the Cobh-Cork train.

She decided to rent the premises and re-opened it under the Fitzpatrick name in 1942.

Today, the shop is managed by the fourth generation, Kerri, with Geraldine’s sister Norene acting as purchasing manager.