Slane shopkeeper still tots up with pen and paper

Visitors such as Sinead O’Connor and Tommy Makem once enjoyed tea at one of the country’s oldest galvanised shops, which is hoping to ensure its future with nostalgia.

Wholesome thick-cut corn beef and wafer-covered slices of ice-cream are all being re-introduced to Smiths Shop at Rossin, Slane, Co Meath.

Tressa Smith, 80, and her son James Martin have no use for a till — they tot up in their heads, using a pen and the back of a brown paper bag to calculate the customer’s bill.