Des reflects on end of era in Mullingar town centre

Regan Kelly

For more than 100 years, Walsh Jewellers made its mark on many Mullingar lives through birthday and gifts, wedding rings… or helping someone pop the question.

Its presence on Oliver Plunkett Street has ingrained those traditional doors in many memories.

The business was passed down through the family to Des and Geraldine Walsh, who held the reins up until its final days of trading.

Since the shop closed in April, the Walsh family have tried to donate much of the business’s equipment, much of which is highly specialised and may still have uses for those still in the industry.

Some of the equipment is of historical importance, as the business has been at the site since 1917.

Des said: "When we closed, there was quite a bit of stuff here, as you can imagine. Really, it is a matter of who wants what, but where possible, we want to make sure it is reused rather than scrapped.

"It’s mostly equipment for engraving, and repairing watches and clocks, and hopefully we can get them for people in the jewellery line of business."

Des is a proud Mullingar man, and he looks back fondly on many years of working and living on Oliver Plunkett Street.

"Believe me, this business meant so much to me. My grandparents took over the business in 1917. When they passed away, my parents took it over.

"When my parents passed away, my wife and I took it over. We loved every minute of it."

Keeping up with the rapid changes in modern society is a challenge, especially with the state of geopolitics.: "There has been a major change, which is out of our control," said Des. "The price of gold skyrocketed in recent years with so much uncertainty around the world – gold has gone out of reach for a lot of people.

"That is unfortunate because it is something so important to jewellers for things like wedding rings, and it’s now kind of gone out of reach."

For Des, working in Mullingar has been important, but the things he has been involved in with his business are some of his fondest memories.

"Looking back, I’ve been so lucky, I got to put together the Mullingar Jewellery Collection, getting gold and silver; insisting that it be manufactured here in Ireland, and it was a big hit.

"There was a great demand for it, which is great because I can now say that, be it rings or pendants or whatever, they are literally all over the world.

"They could be in Australia, or anywhere we sent them out to, and it’s great that there are Mullingar rings used as wedding rings in just about every country in the world."

Des is passionate about keeping town centres vibrant. "The struggle with the high streets is down to the council’s attitude towards town centres. I feel that they really need to talk to business people.

"We can see exactly what the problems are, and yet they will not listen to us. Its not just Mullingar as well, it’s the towns all over Ireland.

"We have so few people living in the town centre, so few that it’s unbelievable."

Asked about his memories, Des said: "The fondest memories I have over the years were just simple – the community we had in Oliver Plunkett Street.

"It was absolutely fabulous, everybody lived over their premises here. There was a great community spirit in the town centre.

"Unfortunately, that has completely gone, simply because there are so few people living here on the streets.

"I remember doing a survey a few years ago, and I found that from the Green Bridge to the Annebrook House Hotel, there were only 12 families living in the town, which is terrible.

"Upstairs over all of these shops, there are so many vacant properties that people could be living in.

"Hopefully, with the government’s new housing plan, they can renovate these places. This can make the centre of Mullingar, like all of the other towns in Ireland, much better.

"Because, right now, the town centres are dying; through lack of support and ideas from the councils."

Walsh Jewellers was part of the fabric of Mullingar town centre for a century, and saw a huge amount of societal change. Des and his wife, Geraldine, have worked hard to deliver the best service they can over their many years holding down the fort, but all great things must come to an end, and Oliver Plunkett Street will continue to change as the years go on.