St Bernard must be spinning in his grave...

[KanyesVest]

I mean seriously what the hell is this? There's no way Great Aunt Mary would be wearing that to the stations.

[ManorMouse]

Being in a changing room was no protection let me tell you.
I can recall the acute embarrassment of my mother ripping back the changing room curtain in Leaders on North Main Street as I was hopping about trying to pull up my grey slacks for my school uniform and half the shop could see me thanks to the "Hall of Mirrors" effect of the various mirrors dotted about the place.

[NewPotatoes]

Manor, you are giving me flashbacks.[ grin] Is Leaders' still there? It never got past 1956 on the inside, from what I remember, and it did a grand line in lovely brown jumpers that people gave their uncles for Christmas, and you saw them decades later wearing them at the national ploughing championships.

That should have been their ad slogan:

LEADERS - CLOTHES TO WEAR TO THE MART!!!

[ManorMouse]

Leaders is still there and still living in 1956. I passed it yesterday afternoon in fact. Although, I don't think they make you go to the front of the shop with your docket to pay up these days.

Every waist and leg size you could ever possibly need in a trouser and none of them in any sort of a fashionable cut or shape so you could rest easy about being trendy or anything of that nature. So, no danger of looking like him out of U2 while you're at the mart.

[NewPotatoes]

Oh god, the dockets!

I'm going to make a special pilgrimage to the North Main Street next time I'm in Cork. I will also be going to - was it called the Roman House, which sold cards for every possible religious occasion and a fine selection of plastic grottoes and rosary beads in all shades? Then you nipped around the corner to St Francis' or St Augustine's and got your mass card signed.

I don't know why I'm using the past tense. My mother still does all these things and thinks I am being deeply unreasonable if I tell her that while I appreciate her good intentions, I have been an atheist for more than 30 years, and getting Mass cards (for a job interview, moving house, or the birth of my baby) always makes me feel as if I must be dying.

[SnipSnipMrBurgess]

Roman House is gone now and by all accounts Leaders will be soon- they are trying to hipsterfy the area, they have amazing apartments and an outside Gloria Jeans on Castle street!

I miss that part of the city. I grew up on the Northside of Cork, my Dad would take me to Nosey Keeffes for sweets and once a year someone would put washing up liquid in the fountain outside it!

I still occasionally buy brusk from the brusk factory in Shandon. Another possible reason for why my teeth are in shite.

[TheVeryThing]

Completely forgot about Leaders.
You're all lucky you were actually brought into Dunnes to try the stuff on.
I was left in the car to act as referee between my two younger brothers. My mum would invariably meet someone she knew and get chatting, my brothers would start blowing the horn and I would be blamed.
I swear I spent half my childhood in the car park of Bishopstown shopping centre (the old one!).
Our hyacinth bucket neighbour once sent in potatoes in a Brown Thomas bag, before we even had BT in Cork.

[hollyisalovelyname]

I remember hearing of a girl I knew buying a Paul Costello outfit in Brown Thomas years ago and thinking that was the height of sophistication ( and posh).

[MitzyLeFrouf]

Being made to try clothes on in the middle of the shop is at odds with all the prudish acrobatics you'd have to undertake on the beach in order to get out of your clothes and into your togs, all the while keeping a towel wrapped around you so as not to flash an inch of bum cheek.

[rosyvalentine]

Haha. It appears that we all have the same mother. #bleedinmorto

[rosyvalentine]

La Traviata Late Late for me any day of the week. The opera is for people with notions...

[Fiderer]

Am still at NewPotatoes Miraculous Medal pinned on underwear.

My mum slips them into our luggage and to counteract her heathen daughter & grandchildren, when we leave she douses us in Knock holy water imported & liberally supplied by her sister who lives nearby.

[NewPotatoes]

I can't have been the only Irish child with a Miraculous Medal pinned to my vest!!! Anyone???

Yes, Fiderer, my mother also sticks medals and holy water into suitcases. She also drowns anyone leaving the house to go further than about five miles in holy water from the font by the door, meaning you always start a journey slightly damp...

[WeShouldOpenABar]

This is the very coat that made me give up on dunnes, was bad enough when I picked up a pair of shoes and found €300 price tag! I'm out, notions I tells ya

[LokisUnderpants]

I can't imagine my local Dunnes in Clonakilty stocking anything like this!!

Notions doesn't come close!

[Onynx]

Does anybody remember the hell that was Bennets on North Main Street? The weird orangey lighting in there....

[hollyisalovelyname]

NewPotatoes

[SnipSnipMrBurgess]

Oynx. I'm very embarrassed to say I used to rob chocolate bars with my sister out of there when I was 5
Well she used to bring me with her and put them in my pockets.

Bennett was awesome

[hollyisalovelyname]

Sheezus
'.....Dunnes are in danger of going the way of M&S with their exclusive lines'
Sure when was it any other way.
We always copy the British or Americans.
They realise that whatever hasn't worked out, and we're up s*it creek

[KanyesVest]

And now SuperValu is selling Master Chef cookware! Although I think the tokens cancel out the notions?

[LuckyLuckyMe]

My mother used to hide Dunnes bags. Then she used to hide Penneys bags and then Guineys. She would be horrified with the notions Dunnes has now.

Onyx I loved Bennetts. You could get everything in there.

[Onynx]

Lucky I used to hate the lighting in there with a passion! North Main Street isn't what it was anymore though - loads of shops etc closed down. Loved Woolworths though

[hollyisalovelyname]

We never hid Dunnes bags. Proudly announced, if something was admired, where we got it.
Years ago an acquaintance of my mothers told her that her 8 year old son wouldn't wear Dunnes stuff. They were millionaires, but we were still aghast at his snobbery.
His parents have died but said son has now lost the millions he inherited.

[FarAwayHills]

What's happened to Dunnes? Even M&S haven't pushed the bar that high. The Celtic Tiger must be back

[hollyisalovelyname]

The younger Dunnes have decided to bring it more upmarket.

[Teahornet]

His parents have died but said son has now lost the millions he inherited.

There's a moral in there, about Dunnes's Stores better value beating them all.

I've said this on here before, but I once saw Fiona Shaw and her mother buying sheets in Guineys' and marching off down Oliver Plunkett Street with the bag loud and proud.