"The man who brought 'Ireland's first supermarket' to Dundalk recalled yesterday the exciting days of setting up the Clanbrassil Street store almost 50 years ago..."

 by Anne Campell, published in The Argus

(Photo: Feargal talking with Gemma Hiney of Centre Travel Dundalk at the official opening of Superquinn in February 1999).

Senator Feargal Quinn was just 23 and the son of a holiday camp owner when he acquired the old Eakin's shop and delivered on a retail dream.

In the week that history came full circle and Superquinn announced the closure of the Carroll Village store, Senator Quinn remembered the frantic efforts to get the store open on November 25th 1960 and the fun-filled years in Dundalk.

In an exclusive interview with the Argus, Senator Quinn can still recall the seven people who worked with him in Dundalk on opening day.

They were Brendan Rooney, Mary McKenna, Mary O'Rourke, Teresa McGeough, Danny Manning, Joe Guest and Rosemary Ryan.

He said: ' We bought Eakin's shop, which had been rebuilt after it burned down, for £10,100 at auction. I've never told anyone that price before'.

Senator Quinn revealed that the second bidder was Blackrock entrepreneur Danny Hughes, who at that time had a stall at Market Square.

As 1960 drew to a close, Dundalk's first supermarket opened for business.

Senator Quinn has many funny stories about those early months. He said: 'My father came down to see the shop a few hours after it opened and as he was walking up Clanbrassil Street, he saw people with our baskets in their hands.

'He said to them he didn't think they were meant to take them out of the shop and people were genuinely amazed they had to leave them at the door.

He said keeping the customer was the number one priority – not profit.

Senator Quinn spent more than 18 months in Dundalk, staying at the Lorne Hotel near the supermarket before he built a house in Dublin shortly after he got married.

He made many lifelong friends in Dundalk including former TD Brendan McGahon and the late Declan Gibson.

Senator Quinn said: 'I love Dundalk and always will. The people are great and even though there have been big ups and downs over the years, Dundalk people are resiliant and rightly proud.'

(C) The Argus 2009