All in a name
One thing we’ve noticed here in Ireland, especially in the west, in County Kerry, is the number of occasions we have come across names of individual people.
At home, the pubs and bars have names like The Red Lion, or the Kings Head. But here, there’s almost always someone’s name above the door. Like here in Sneem, where we enjoyed a pint of Guinness in Dan Murphy’s bar. Was it Dan behind the bar? Or was Dan the original owner, possibly long remembered from days gone by? We had no idea.
Just across the road frm Dan Murphy’s was Hickey’s Music store and a pharmacy, whose name I didn’t record but simply noted that it wasn’t “Boots” or the name of another multiple,
The wild Hallowe’en decorations in and around the shop offered further confirmation if any were needed. This was a privately owned business with the owner’s name above the door. In terms of pharmacies at home, that would be a rare sight indeed.
Actually, spotting so many names above the door like this made me realise just how few individual businesses remain on our High Streets in England and those that remain are unlikely to be identified by the owners name. I began to wonder why that might be.
So today, whilst out and about, I snapped a few names here and there - through a rainy windscreen! The DIY store above was particularly interesting because although it appears to be affiliated to a group of similar stores, there is still a person’s name there on the sign. I expect that, when someone sets out to buy a can of paint or some wood glue, they pop down to “O’Keeffe’s” and not to Homevalue. I began to wonder if having a person’s name above the door encourages loyalty?
But a sign just a short way along the road suggested that O’Keeffes might be a rather larger concern than a simple DIY store. I wonder, if it’s the same O’Keeffe here or just a coincidence?
Anyway, as the satnav flashed up the next instruction i found myself wondering about this Frank Drohan and how come he has a road named after him? For it’s not only shops and small businesses that bear the name of an individual…
it’s the local college too, and the sports centre.
The place where I first began to notice this naming phenomenon was in Killarney, where every traffic roundabout bore someone’s name. The picture above isn’t in Killarney, for I didn’t manage to snap a picture in the rain there (!) but clearly, it’s not something that’s unique to County Kerry.
The thing is, now that I have begun to notice names here and there, perhaps I will also realise that there’s nothing unusual about it at all and the only surprising thing is that I hadn’t noticed it before!
