Michael O'Malley retires from Carraig Donn

Excepts from an Interview with ANTON MCNULTY From The Mayo News Home.

Carraig Donn celebrates 60 years in business this year and for forty-six of those years, Michael O'Malley has been an integral figure and the face of the flagship store on Bridge Street in Westport.

On May 9 last, the Aughagower native brought his re-markable 46-year career in the Westport-based store to a close, when he bade an emotional farewell to the public and his work colleagues on his last day before retirement. Looking back on his career, Michael admits that having entered Carraig Donn as a fresh faced 18-year-old in the late 1970s he could not have imagined the transformation of the small store on Bridge Street into one of Ireland's leading department stores.

"When I joined in February 1979, it was one small shop on Bridge Street aimed at the tourist market, but it is now the flagship store with 43 stores all around the country and with a huge presence online. Carraig Donn celebrates 60 years in business this year and I am honoured to have been there for a large part of it," he told The Mayo News.
Ireland of the late 1970s was a different place to what it is today with few opportunities for young people leaving secondary school other than to take the boat to England. For six months after leaving school Michael worked in the shoe factory located on Altamount  Street and while it was a job, factory life and the constant smell of leather did not appeal to him. His life in the shoe factory did not last long after he decided to apply for a job as a
Carraig Donn trainee manager for the summer.

 Michael O'Malley and some of his colleagues at the Carraig Donn's store on Bridge Street in Westport on his final day of work.

"It was a change of direction that I wanted," Michael re-called and after a successful interview it began his forty-six career with Carraig Donn.

In the early years, Michael worked closely with Pat Hughes and accompanied him during the spring as they would travel from Cork to Donegal setting up trade fairs in different towns. We would be on the road for five or six weeks during the spring with Pat and we had a good working relationship over the years. As well as the store in Westport, Carraig Donn also had a shop on Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, which was open for the summer months.
As a young and single member of staff, Michael was shipped off to the Gaeltacht is-
I used to look forward to heading out during the summer but it was definitely an education When I started first we had no till. We had a cash box and a receipt book, and you were not long getting good at maths. It was a year or two before we got the till and you'd have to have everything added up right.
Living on the Aran Islands took a bit of getting used to it but once you got used to it and the locals accepted you and you were treated like a local. 
Tourism was not like it is now and the boats out there at the time were nothing like they are now. You'd get on a rickety boat which took an hour and a half and you were glad to get ashore in one piece," he said.

It was a good social life out there and looking back maybe too good. There was ceilis in the hall and around four pubs which always had live music every night of the week.
Michael's summer jaunts to Inis Mór ended in 1990 when he married his wife Moira, a native of Clogher, Claremorris and they raised a family of three sons.

There are mixed feelings about retiring. I will miss a lot of great work colleagues and I will miss meeting the public but there comes a time when you just have to call it. I have been thinking about [retiring] for the last year and with my wife retiring as well, so it is good timing. I have been very fortunate to be able to work in Carraig Donn and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it.