Patrick Leader: Leader's Menswear

Leaders.JPG

Title

Patrick Leader: Leader's Menswear

Subject

North Main Street, Cork

Description

Patrick Leader gives the history of Leader’s shop on North Main Street. He discusses the ups and downs of North Main Street over generations and provides his views on challenges facing the street during the recession. He talks about local characters and running a multi-generational family business on North Main Street.

Date

10 February 2015

Identifier

CFP_SR00545_leader_2015

Coverage

Cork; Ireland; 1950s-2000s

Relation


Penny Johnston based a digital oral history mapping pilot project called ‘Cork’s Main Streets’ on the audio interviews from this collection in 2016, as part of her PhD research. The 2018 website and the map layer can be viewed at: http://corksmainstreets.corkfolklore.org/cms/

Penny’s PhD dissertation can be accessed at: https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/5469

Other Material Relating to Cork's Main Streets:

CFP_SR00448_hinchy_2012: Interview of ex-Beamish Brewery (South Main Street) staff member Ed Hinchy.

CFP_SR00532_davis_2014: Interview with the former manager of The Other Place Resource Centre (South Main Street), Clive Davis, conducted by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, as part of the LGBT Archive Collection

CFP_SR00535_wilkins_2014: Mark Wilkins was interviewed by Aisling Byron on the music scene of Cork City in the 1980s and 1990s: the interview contains an in-depth discussion of South Main Street music venue Sir Henry’s and of the South Main Street pub The Liberty.

Source

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Language

English

Type

Sound

Format

1.wav File

Interviewee

Duration

24 mins 21 secs

Location

Leaders, North Main Street

Original Format

.wav

Bit Rate/Frequency

24bit / 48kHz

Transcription

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

PL: Earliest memories of the shop is that we had a long timber counter. Eh the timber counter was where we used have everything from workwear stored underneath it, an’ we used have the denim jeans behind it eh would – ‘cos we’re a traditional menswear store. The wooden counter would be have oh originally came from a company called Dowdans, em the counter had a – had a brass measuring tape, eh the counter has since disappeared since we changed the shop around. Also the earliest memory of the shop would be that we had a large eh area where there was your shop and then a large area of storage. Tradition was in those days that if you had an empty space you filled it with stock, it wasn’t whether you needed it or not, but it was almost a crime to have an empty room.

AB: Ok. An’ would there have been, like in lots of hardware shops that I would remember with my – my Dad, where there was a long counter, that there was a lot more staff em or d’you know.

PL: You had a lot more people in the street back in those days

AB: Yeah

PL: You had a lot more staff as well because there were a lot more – it’s a busi – it was a busier area, then before the shopping centres didn’t exist, an’ people then for – had – therefore had to come to city centre.

AB: Yeah

PL: Eh you also had eh difference in the street layout because you had traffic being 2 way as opposed to 1 way like it is today

AB: Really

PL: An’ you had parking on both sides of the street

AB: Oh right, so was it much wider or?

PL: It was wider because the footpaths were narrower

AB: That’s what I was gonna ask, yeah, em I never – I don’t remember it being 2 way, it’s hard to imagine North Main Street now being – being 2 way

PL: Yeah

AB: And em, what was the other thing that occurred to me there a moment ago, oh yeah the counter that you said, was that made in Cork or was it made in Ireland, or the company?

PL: Eh it was made from 1 piece of timber, which was quite unusual

AB: Wow. An’ did you keep it?

PL: We didn’t, it’s a guy called eh Leo Lenihan

AB: Oh yeah

PL: Curran’s Restaurant, he took the counter an’ he made it into 2 different pieces, an’ he has used that in different parts of his own ventures.

Interview Format

Audio

Citation

Cork Folklore Project , “Patrick Leader: Leader's Menswear,” accessed March 29, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/70.