Christmas and the Culchies

Christmas and the Culchies

Snow, heavy rain, jam-packed trains and busses, industrial disputes, recession, martin invasion.

When it came to their traditional Christmas pilgrimage to the capital nothing stopped a culchie looking for a bargain.

Though memories of the annual shopping trips are mainly a memory today for decades the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin on December 8th answered the prayers of retailers big and small on both sides of the River Liffey.

Market traders from Thomas Street to Moore Street stocked up and cashed in as tens of thousands of country folks packed into coaches, cars and trains to head to the capital in search of as poet Loius McNeice put it: “Gimcracks in the shops, Wishes and memories…Trinkets, gadgets and lollipops.”

Many mothers also used the time here to outfit the family in clothes and shoes and pick up other essential household items, while the tills in cafes, restaurants and pubs also rang out merry tunes catering to hungry and thirsty bargain-hunters on a quick break from bringing home the Christmas.

While the retailers gleefully took notes Santy – and even Charlie – took note.

“With all the country motorists who will be in town, any Dublin motorists who can do so should leave their cars at home on Thursday,” advised Minister of State at the Department of Justice Charles Haughey, TD ahead of December 8th, 1960, adding, “Dublin housewives would be well advised to leave their Christmas shopping for some other day.”

The Iveagh Markets of the Liberties had been a strong draw for country people for years as third-generation trader Josie Twomey, whose grandmother was the first stallholder there back in 1907 reminded reporter John Ross in a TV interview for RTE in 1962.

Five years later despite heavy snowstorms and the AA warning drivers to travel only if absolutely necessary the newspapers reported that the bad weather hadn’t deterred country folk intent on seeing the Christmas lights and being part of the excitement of one of the busiest days in our capital, and these numbers continued to grow.

The annual traffic chaos which resulted helped hasten the arrival of parking meters in time for the epic 1970 Invasion of the Culchies reported on by RTE television.

“Also easing the situation somewhat is the fact that while many shops in the country closed on December 8th more and more are now remaining open,” an RTE report declared, quoting an unnamed department store manager in Dublin who said receipts increased 6% on a normal trading day, adding up to a whopping £30,000 (approximately €585,00 today).

Many travellers had turned to the train as extra carriages were laid on at regional stations to cope with the demand.
“It would be a good day to take sick leave,” a CIE spokesman joked to the Irish Times in December 1978, the situation worsened by traffic lights still dark from a recent industrial dispute.

By then however the relentless pilgrimage to Frawleys, Guineys or Shaws was based more on emotion and tradition than a search for items you couldn’t find on your local high street.
“Despite the proliferation of shopping centres and branch stores in rural towns, there’s still an annual sentimental pull to the Capital to see the Christmas lights,” wrote Mary Maher on December 5th, 1977 in “The Survival Guide to Dublin Shopping” supplement for the Irish Times.

Within five years the numbers had fallen as the recession took hold, according to an unnamed city centre store manager interviewed by RTE’s Caroline Erskine in a report available on the broadcaster’s website.
“A lot of the country people don’t come to town because the out-of-town centres are now improving and secondly I think that the city people expect a big influx from the country,” he explained.
“As a result it’s a very pleasant day to shop rather than a very hectic day.”

Although a trader on Thomas Steet could sort you out with wrapping paper for a few pennies and a battery-powered robot named Made in Taiwan for a fiver, RTE reported that retailers like Clearys and Arnotts offered snooker tables ranging from £50 to £1,000, or if your non-resident bank account ran to it, a fur coat costing £3,995. That’s about  €14,000 today and an eyewatering sum in 1983 when a brand new Mini City E sold for £4,400.

In the dying embers of the decade Culchies’ Day still wasn’t something you could ignore in Inchicore.
On December 7th, 1989 RTE told us that Irish Rail was expecting 10,000 people to travel through their stations the following day, and that the Central Bank said that £1.34 billion (equivalent to €3.6 billion now) was in consumers’ pockets in the run-in to Christmas.

A generation later shopping has changed utterly. Though stores will still be busy and footfall high many of us have drifted online in search of the perfect gift. Drone deliveries haven’t yet arrived here but An Post and Amazon van drivers will be busier than ever in helping Santy out over the next three weeks.

In 2023 Retail Ireland estimated that on average we spent €1,019 on Christmas, a 5% increase on the previous year but  KPMG’s 2024 survey of consumer retail attitudes shows more than half of us will spend less on Christmas shopping this December.

It’s a sentiment echoed by the Irish League of Credit Unions following their survey of Yuletide patterns.
The credit unions’ report predicts that “most Irish households plan a Christmas that is cautious rather than carefree or cancelled at either extreme,” concluding that the festive season “will be a time of wonder for some Irish consumers and worry for others.”

To paraphrase the French as we root through the sofa for a few Euro coins in January, plus ça change…