Ormston House in 1950s, Motorcycle shop !

airnwater

Hello , I'm interested in seeing any photos of Ormston House , 9 - 11 Patricks street in the 1950s , when it was a motorcycle dealership !
It was a good location for such a business , with the large display windows.

It seems that , J & J occupied 9 - 11 Patricks Street in the early to mid 1950s & then EJ & TN McCarthy until it became Ormston's supermarket in early 1960's.

Many makes of motorcycles , scooters & mopeds were sold there , including BSA , Ariel , James , NSU ,Jawa , Lambretta , Triumph ,Setta , Credette , DKW , Vespa etc.

I know of a very rare , basic model 1956 Lambretta 150 d scooter , first registered in County Limerick, which was assembled & distributed by Buckley Motors in Dublin & supplied new from McCarthys on Patrick street.

Any memories or photos out there of Ormston House / 9 - 11 Patricks Street in the 1950s ?

Mc Love

https://twitter.com/OrmstonHouse/status/1274077590454747142?s=19

orm0nd

I can very vaguely remember the supermarket in the 60,s

I think my mother was friendly with the owners.

airnwater

Thanks for that , am not on Twitter !

Nice photo , I think the cars can help date it ; A 1949 - 1953 Ford Anglia E494A coming from Ellen St onto Patrick St & parked outside the front of Ormston House shows a rear view of what seems to be an Austin A40 Cambridge , a model which came out in late 1954 & as the Ford looks quite tidy , I'd guess the photo is probably 1955 / 1956 .
Interesting to see the vertical advertising sign on the upper storey of the building , "Shannon Oil Company" , with oil brand logos for BP & Shell top & bottom. This would likely indicate that there was a motorcycle dealer occupying the building at the time. Seems strange that one cant really see any signage for the dealer itself on the lower part of the building , perhaps there were signs behind the large windows.

Some close up photos from the 1950s would be nice to find !

A trawl through the adverts on the online newspaper archives a while back, yielded some information ;

J & J ,9-11 Patrick St , phone 1315 !! , were promoting a special display of the latest motorcycles , scooters etc on August 25 1956 ,brands included BSA ,Ariel , James , NSU ,Jawa ,Lambretta ,Triumph ,Ambassador ,Setta Credette & more.

Later McCarthys were advertising the "largest selection of scooters in the South" available for "immediate delivery" , including NSU Prima , Lambretta , Vespa etc & they could be viewed at their showroom at 9-11 Patrick St.

What was surprising was the high number of other motorcycle / moped / scooter "dealers" in the city ;

Limerick Motor cycle & scooter service , Foxes Bow
Goods , William st
"The Radio Service" ,52 Parnell St
National Garage , Thomas St
Gleesons , Ellen St
Heelan Bros , Sexton St
Harringtons

Gary Owen

Limerick Motor cycle & scooter service , Foxes Bow
Goods , William st
"The Radio Service" ,52 Parnell St
National Garage , Thomas St
Gleesons , Ellen St
Heelan Bros , Sexton St
Harringtons

I remember Harrington’s in foxes bow in the 70s .

Brian Lighthouse

Airnwater,
I had a quick look there out of interest myself.

It would appear, through the "quick glance" I took, that the building known as Ormston House today or 9, 10 and 11 Patrick Street, may have been out of commission for a few years between a fire on May 9, 1953 and it's rebuilding by EJ and TN McCarthy sometime in 1956.
It's possible that the ground floor business could have been still operating, however I didn't find anything for that address in any of the directories of the time with respect to Motor cycles. O'Donovan is still registered as operating from there even though he was using The Mechanic's Institute until 1959.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/clothing%20industry%2005.pdf

Here it's reported that what were once the fine premises of Messrs M Egan Limited on the ground floor and O'Donovan (upper floors) is now a shell from May 16, 1953.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/streets065.pdf

In 1949 there were three draper stores on Patrick street, you will find the clothing manufacturers registered to 9, 10 or 11 Patrick street in many a directory.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/1949%20Thom.pdf

!957: http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/1957,%20Thom.pdf

These files are not text searchable but are categorised and alphabetical. One thing I did gather was that there was a Bernard T operating a cycle business on Rutland Street.
Stokes and McKiernan were operating in the motor trade on Sarsfield Street and Bedford Row.


A list of Directories of firms operating in Limerick since the dawn of time. Please note that not all businesses would advertise their wares here, just like the the way the Golden Pages worked.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/TradesStreetDirectories1769-1976/

More on that address.
Ormston's Supermarket April 1961 - January 1982
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/shops%20065.pdf
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/shops%20067.pdf

Something general on Patrick Street from Thomond Archeological Society 2010.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/streets067.pdf

This one mentions L and J (John Larkin) (1957) I couldn't find any J and J.
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/streets077.pdf


If you find anything, can you let me know please?
Thanks and I hope I was able to furnish something helpful.
Brian

geotrig

great little thread , it reminds me of that show on bbc a house through time where the chronicle history of the house

airnwater

Thanks Brian , a very comprehensive reply for such a "quick glance " !

Interesting information about the McCarthys & 9-11 Patrick St , hadn't known about the fire.

From the classified ads in the 1950s Limerick newspapers , in February 1956 & some time before that , EJ & TN McCarthy Ltd were regularly advertising large selection of motorcycles & scooters , from an Ennis Rd address ,tel 778 .
Later adverts for McCarthys eg one from 1958 offer "largest of new & used motorcycles" at their showrooms on 9-11 Patrick St , tel 44542 , whereas J&J at same address ,earlier in 1956 had tel 1315.
From your information , as McCarthys rebuilt the building post fire, it would seem probable that they were also J&J ,selling motorcycles at both locations for a time , & perhaps just storing them on the Ennis Rd later on.

Speaking to a keen motorcycle enthusiast in his 70s , he recalled McCarthys motorcycles at 9-11 Patrick St. back in the day.

They were also connected with a circus apparently.

fran38

I remember going to Ormston House in the late 70's with my mam. Cannot for the life of me remember anything about the supermarket that day but I went upstairs where there was a large selection of vintage furniture from what I remember. Could a different business have been operating out of the upstairs while the supermarket was downstairs?
I loved going into 'Forbidden Planet' in the basement of Ormston in the early 90's. Can't remember if this was before or after they had their shop on Roches Street.

Brian Lighthouse

Airnwater,
The McCarthy's were cousins and owned the Shannon Oil Company and their main business was situated on the Ennis Road. I'm told that their depot was around where Woodies is nowadays. In behind the original Jetland, I believe.
I'm assuming that as they used the Patrick Street retail site as a showroom/sales business. You can see in the image their re-opening from Oct 1956 that there was a tractor in there. Perhaps they sold every type of motor vehicle.
In terms of marketing strategy I could easily see them utilising the Patrick Street location and advertising their Ennis Road business to catch all the eyes coming in to the city from south east Clare and north Tipperary and Dublin road directions.
I would take it that there was scooter or two sold from that location.

Fran,
Danus Clothing Manufacturers (Anthony O'Donovan Ltd) were operating from the upper floors.

airnwater

More good info ,thanks !

Interesting about McCarthys owning Shannon Oil company , explains the sign on the upper part of the building in Mc Love's pic earler in thread. Also nice to know their Ennis rd location.

Curious as to how they got a tractor into the building !, I guess for the reopening ,they were promoting all sorts.
Looking at pics of when the building at different times , including when it was a supermarket , there seem to have been different door / window configurations over the years.

I hadn't seen their name in connection with car sales , although I understand they did have Jaguars etc themselves, which would have been quite flash in that era