‘Very sad day’ as retailer closes after 58 years

A prominent independent retailer in Co Cork is to close down after nearly six decades of business, citing “impossible” competition from online and chain retailers as being behind his decision to ceasing trading.

Joe Murphy’s Menswear, which opened on Fermoy’s Patrick St in 1959 before moving to the town’s main square, is to cease business having sold school uniforms, clothes, and shoes to generations of customers in north Cork.

Ray Murphy, who assumed the running of the store from his father, said sustaining the business in the face of competition from online sales and Mahon Point shopping centre, which is some 30km away via the M8 motorway, was proving “impossible”.