On the Clerys shop floor just after 5pm, word was beginning to filter down to staff that the store would be closing at the earlier time of 5.30pm and there was to be a meeting “at the stairs” at 6pm.
As the word spread that they were to be informed of the store’s liquidation and the loss of their jobs, many seemed unable to believe it and stared open-mouthed at their colleagues.
As the last customers of the 162-year-old institution trickled out, the mood was also one of disbelief. Ken and Maureen Maguire, in their fifties, said they were regular visitors to the store. “We’re from Leitrim so we’re not in Dublin all the time but we lived here years ago,” they said. “It would always have been one of the shops we would visit in Dublin. We used to meet outside it years ago. It’s very sad.”
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Last customer
Anne-Marie Cleary, from Phibsboro, Dublin, also in her fifties, was the last customer to exit the store before the shutters were pulled down.
“It’s horrific for the staff,” she said. “I like it as a store. I like to support it because it’s an old traditional Dublin store and a great old Dublin institution. I’m shocked. I’m really sorry to hear it and I hope something can be done so they don’t lose their jobs.”
From about 6.30pm, as staff made their way out of the store through an exit at the back of the building, many were visibly emotional and paused to comfort colleagues.
Sharon Maguire (45), from Baldoyle, Dublin, said she had worked at the store for more than 18 years as a hairdresser.
“We were told at 6pm the company was gone into liquidation and is closed from now,” she said. “We’re devastated. I’ve only booked my holidays yesterday and I’ve no job now. We don’t know what’s going to happen.
“Everyone was gathered and KPMG, the liquidators, came in and told us the store was gone as of 6pm. There were a couple of hundred people there. Some of the management who weren’t working came in for it. That was it. Our fobs were taken at the door. The same people would come in all the time, so it’s sad for them and for Dublin people. It’s such a shock.”
Terrible shock
Another staff member, who did not wish to be named, said she had been working at the store for most of her life.
“It’s a terrible shock for everyone, especially for the younger people with mortgages,” she said. “Everybody was very upset. They are trying to organise a sit-in at the moment. The unions are on their way down. When you look around and realise it’s not going to open again, it’s very sad.”
Martin O’Sullivan, who co-owns a carpet and rug shop in the store, said staff were angry about the manner in which events had been dealt with.
“We’re out of business – we’re gone,” he said. “We’re only there a year. The lads are in there now and they’re very very pissed off. I think what they’re offering them is two weeks’ basic redundancy. It’s a nasty, mean way of dealing with people. I’m only there a year, but a lot of the staff have been here for much longer.”
