ONE of West Cork’s quirkiest shops has become a casualty of the pandemic.
Paul Nolan, who has traded at McCurtain Hill in Clonakilty under the unusual trade name Paul’s Secondhand Furniture and Auld Shite, confirmed he will be closing in the coming weeks.
‘I closed during the first lockdown, and again during the second,’ Paul told The Southern Star, ‘but the third lockdown from January to the present day was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
‘This week would have been my 10th anniversary so it feels like a kick in the teeth, but I couldn’t go on because the building is about to be sold,’ he said.
Financially, Paul managed to survive lockdown one and two, but by then he was down to living on €203 a week, which was very difficult.
The shop – which is located in a coachhouse entrance – offered a unique shopping experience, because part of it was outdoors, part was under an archway, and the rest stretched to the back into the cavernous depths of the building.
Filled with a variety of items – everything from furniture to retro light fittings, pub memorabilia, and basically anything you could think of – the shop has always been a mecca for locals and visitors alike.
He had considered relocating but decided against it because it would be a nightmare to relocate. ‘It would just be easier to have a closing down sale and get rid of everything,’ he said.
Paul said he is considering doing what he does best – being the purveyor of curios – online, but ultimately, the former clothes shop owner and publican isn’t too worried about the future.
‘I’ll reinvent myself,’ he said.
