Cork newsagents MacCarthy’s shuts up shop after 105 years

After 105 years in business, MacCarthy’s newsagents in Clonakilty closes on Christmas Eve, writes Noel Baker.

"I’ll tell you a story,” says Dave McCarthy. He has plenty of stories, some of them daily news. “Here every morning we have five fellas in,” he says, “early in the morning, before 8 o’clock, and everything is discussed, between religion, national, everything — insults thrown, compliments given, one fella will walk out, he’ll come back again the following morning... that kind of thing.”

There’s been plenty of “that kind of thing” over the past 105 years: the amount of time MacCarthy’s Newsagents has been open and running on the corner of Rossa St onto Pearse St in the West Cork town of Clonakilty.