Historic jewellry business has Athy roots
Philip, Dympna, Pat and Stuart Bramley
THIS week I spoke with Pat Bramley, whose family business has served the community of Carlow since 1946.
Bill Bramley, Pat’s father, was a watch and clockmaker. He opened his jewellery business at 62-63 Dublin Street, having worked for Duthie’s of Athy, where he served his time repairing clocks and watches. His father before him had been an engineer – an Englishman – who built the clay brick factory in Athy. The young Bill used to cycle from Athy to Carlow to dance in the Ritz Ballroom. There he met his wife-to-be Maureen Murray, sister of Aidan from Murray’s sweet shop. Having cycled over and back on Friday nights for a few years with his suit on the back of his bike, he decided to move to Carlow, where he took up a position in Douglas jewellers.
Bill and Maureen married in 1944 and the following year they decided to rent 62 and 63 Dublin Street, which had formerly been a greengrocer’s owned by Mrs Hayden and a bootmaker’s shop owned by Luke Wynne.
Without any money to invest in doing up the shop, they set about decorating the premises and converting it to a jeweller’s shop. With a glass case donated by a neighbouring optician and a large mirror behind a few glass shelves, they started by selling their wedding presents! It was all the stock they had to begin with. Since Bill had converted to Catholicism to marry Maureen in a quiet ceremony in Killeshin Church, he was out of favour with his own family and no capital was forthcoming to help him out in his new business.
By sheer hard work, Bill and Maureen made the shop prosper. Bill used his clockmaking skills and developed a thriving trade, visiting all the big houses in the region, dismantling their broken grandfather clocks and bringing the working parts back to his workshop. Every part had to be made or fashioned to fit as there were no custom-made parts available. Then it would have to be brought back to the house to be installed, with follow-up visits if it lost or gained time.
French clocks which stood on mantlepieces were very popular at the time and Bill was adept at fixing those, too. Pat remembers his father telling him the story of a man coming into the shop who clearly didn’t understand the workings of a grandfather clock. In his hand he carried a pendulum, insisting that it wasn’t working. Bill had to patiently explain to him that it wasn’t the pendulum that was broken, it was the clock itself, before arranging a call-out to fix it.
The large mirror intended to bring light into the shop almost ended in disaster one day. Cattle and all sorts of animals were brought to the market in Market Cross at the time and on one occasion, a bull, on seeing his reflection in the mirror, entered the shop. Bill had to think quickly and somehow managed to get the bull to turn around and whooshed him out the door without damaging anything. There actually was a bull in a china shop!
Pat, being an only child, was always intended to carry on the business. Having attended Knockbeg College, he was taken out by his parents after his inter cert. The plan was for him to go to Switzerland to train as a watchmaker. However, this plan fell through. Then, while he was on holiday in Holland there was a red alert out for him. A policeman stopped the car in which he was travelling to say he was wanted at home immediately. Fearing the worst, Pat phoned home to find that he needed to get to Dublin post haste, as a place had come up in the newly-built Irish Swiss Institute of Horology in Blanchardstown. The interviews were being held that very day. Pat made it to Fitzpatrick’s Hotel to be interviewed before the day was out and spent three happy years training in the institute under two Swiss master craftsmen.
For the first nine years, the Bramley family lived in Granby Row, but then lived over the shop. Pat remembers playing with all the Duggan children from next door. Everyone lived over their shop at the time and Dublin Street was a hub of activity. When men going to the sugar factory would cycle by, Pat and his friends blew peas through a pea-shooter and tried to hit bald men on the head! The shop would shake with the vibrations of trucks coming up Kennedy Street. Once they were so strong that a Waterford Crystal bowl fell from a top shelf and smashed into a million pieces on the floor.
Returning to work in the family business, Pat set about improving the premises. Sadly, his mother Maureen had died in a car accident in 1977. Side by side with his father, he built the business and in 1971 he married Dympna, who hailed from Sligo. The first major renovation took place in 1979, when the late Fintan Phelan (contractor) removed the whole façade of the shop and configured the two premises into one with a stylish marble front. Despite the almost-complete demolition works going on, Pat’s father refused to move out and continued to live over the shop. (Pat and Dympna had moved the business across the road for six months.) This almost cost him his life one night when, going up the temporary staircase, the handrail broke and he was fortunate enough to fall into a dumper full of sand unscathed!
The new premises was officially opened in 1980 by local TD Des Governey and was very successful, with a wide range of clocks, watches, jewellery and glassware. In 1989, Pat and Dympna branched out and opened a stylish boutique over the jeweller’s shop. Stocking many exclusive brands, the boutique was a must for the fashion-conscious ladies of Carlow. The shop was again extended in 1995, when number 64 was acquired – formerly Irish Life and Duggan’s of Market Cross, and further renovations were necessary.
Pat and Dympna had three sons, two of whom are now involved in the business. Philip, a master goldsmith, having studied in Manchester for three years and gaining experience with Taiwanese jewellers in New York, now runs the family business from Tullow Street (Finegan’s Corner.) His brother Stuart manages the accounts and website. Their third son Patrick William runs ULAB Media Company. Dympna looks after all the business’s social media accounts as she believes this is where the future lies.
With their state-of-the-art shop on Tullow Street, the Bramley name continues the proud tradition begun by Bill so many years ago and looks set to do so for many years to come.
