Michael Creedon: Bradley's
Title
Michael Creedon: Bradley's
Subject
North Main Street, Cork
Description
Michael Creedon relates some of the history pertaining to Bradley's, a 4th generation shop established in 1850 on North Main Street. He discusses the changes that have taken place during that time in the area and the importance of supporting local businesses to keep the character of Cork City local.
Bradley’s off-licence and footsore, on North Main Street, was established in 1850 and is currently in the 4th generation of family ownership. Michael Creedon, current owner of Bradley's, discusses the history of the shop within the family dating back to his grandfather (the third generation back from him) and the changing character of the street as well as Cork City over time. He states that the shop started out pasteurizing and selling milk and would have had two other locations on Shear Street and Douglas Street. His grandfather (Michael) and his great-uncle (Frank) worked together in the business before it passed to his uncle who first introduced the notion of the business as a food shop as well. From there Michael discusses his own memories as a child and the close relationship his family had with the shop, including enquiring after the shop at Christmas almost as one would a person. He relates a memory, at the approximate age of five, wherein they kept fire lighters within the door of their shop on bonfire night. He states there would have been no pressure from the family to take on the direction of the shop but that, among his siblings, he was the most suited for it. Finally, the conversation moves on to his own perception of North Main Street and Cork City over time. Michael expresses his regrets that the localised nature of the city is diminishing in favour of large shopping centres, citing the construction of the pedestrian bridge from Popes Quay to Cornmarket Street as well as free parking in other locations in the city as drawing away foot traffic from local businesses. He states that because he is a small business, he makes an effort to support other small businesses in the products that he offers for sale and emphasises that people who care for Cork should support Cork and appreciate the historic quarter.
Bradley’s off-licence and footsore, on North Main Street, was established in 1850 and is currently in the 4th generation of family ownership. Michael Creedon, current owner of Bradley's, discusses the history of the shop within the family dating back to his grandfather (the third generation back from him) and the changing character of the street as well as Cork City over time. He states that the shop started out pasteurizing and selling milk and would have had two other locations on Shear Street and Douglas Street. His grandfather (Michael) and his great-uncle (Frank) worked together in the business before it passed to his uncle who first introduced the notion of the business as a food shop as well. From there Michael discusses his own memories as a child and the close relationship his family had with the shop, including enquiring after the shop at Christmas almost as one would a person. He relates a memory, at the approximate age of five, wherein they kept fire lighters within the door of their shop on bonfire night. He states there would have been no pressure from the family to take on the direction of the shop but that, among his siblings, he was the most suited for it. Finally, the conversation moves on to his own perception of North Main Street and Cork City over time. Michael expresses his regrets that the localised nature of the city is diminishing in favour of large shopping centres, citing the construction of the pedestrian bridge from Popes Quay to Cornmarket Street as well as free parking in other locations in the city as drawing away foot traffic from local businesses. He states that because he is a small business, he makes an effort to support other small businesses in the products that he offers for sale and emphasises that people who care for Cork should support Cork and appreciate the historic quarter.
Date
04 March 2015
Identifier
CFP_SR00546_creedon_2015
Coverage
Cork; Ireland; 1800s - 2000s
Relation
CFP_SR00536_oleary_2015; CFP_SR00537_hanover_2015; CFP_SR00538_spalding_2015; CFP_SR00539_hUigin_2015; CFP_SR00543_obrien_2015; CFP_SR00544_comber_2015; CFP_SR00545_leader_2015; CFP_SR00546_creedon_2015;
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
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
21 mins 45 sec
Location
North Main Street, Cork
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
MC: We always kind of saw the shop as been another member of the family, I mean we’d be together at Christmas, small family that we were, you’d nearly ask about the shop as if well hows the shop and if the shop was okay, we were all okay, it was like that so, the shop was doing fine so it was a bit like that. Maybe one of my earliest memories myself was there was a fire here one time, it was actually on a bonfire night and they used to light bonfires down the side lanes here and there was I suppose maybe I was I dunno five at the time, if I was about that it was about forty years ago and bizarrely we had firelighters stored inside the door at that time, I’m not sure the insurance company ever believed that was a total coincidence but em, my memory of the time was because we had to sell off a lot of the stock and I just remember as a child been very excited about that and dealing with the flour because it was kind of fire damaged and all the ladies coming in to get the cheap flour because they could do their baking because it was been sold off so cheap and I just remember that. But then I suppose on and off during the years just by the nature of it and been a small family we would have come in and out of it. I suppose I came in myself full time in my early twenties so that’s over twenty years ago, now I was actually working in the bank for a little while but I suppose it was always kind of nearly my destiny not that it had ever been forced upon us really in fairness but it always seemed pre-destined. I was the youngest, my sister had gone on to law, my brother was an architect and it, I suppose it was me or nobody.
AB: Yeah I was going to ask you that!
MC: I didn’t feel an undue pressure but it just evolved into that and I suppose knowing my brother and sister, which you don’t, I was the most suited to it as well in terms of, well I like the interaction of the day to day dealing with people and all that sort of thing so it suited me in that sense you know and em, I suppose then we had to start moving in a different direction because of the, how things changed in terms of retail and how people shop and all that.
MC: We always kind of saw the shop as been another member of the family, I mean we’d be together at Christmas, small family that we were, you’d nearly ask about the shop as if well hows the shop and if the shop was okay, we were all okay, it was like that so, the shop was doing fine so it was a bit like that. Maybe one of my earliest memories myself was there was a fire here one time, it was actually on a bonfire night and they used to light bonfires down the side lanes here and there was I suppose maybe I was I dunno five at the time, if I was about that it was about forty years ago and bizarrely we had firelighters stored inside the door at that time, I’m not sure the insurance company ever believed that was a total coincidence but em, my memory of the time was because we had to sell off a lot of the stock and I just remember as a child been very excited about that and dealing with the flour because it was kind of fire damaged and all the ladies coming in to get the cheap flour because they could do their baking because it was been sold off so cheap and I just remember that. But then I suppose on and off during the years just by the nature of it and been a small family we would have come in and out of it. I suppose I came in myself full time in my early twenties so that’s over twenty years ago, now I was actually working in the bank for a little while but I suppose it was always kind of nearly my destiny not that it had ever been forced upon us really in fairness but it always seemed pre-destined. I was the youngest, my sister had gone on to law, my brother was an architect and it, I suppose it was me or nobody.
AB: Yeah I was going to ask you that!
MC: I didn’t feel an undue pressure but it just evolved into that and I suppose knowing my brother and sister, which you don’t, I was the most suited to it as well in terms of, well I like the interaction of the day to day dealing with people and all that sort of thing so it suited me in that sense you know and em, I suppose then we had to start moving in a different direction because of the, how things changed in terms of retail and how people shop and all that.
Interview Format
Audio
Collection
Citation
Cork Folklore Project , “Michael Creedon: Bradley's,” accessed April 25, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/71.