3rd June 2020
Welcome to the first edition of my weekly business column. My name is Deborah Loughran, I am a past President and current Board member of Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade. I'm in the process of setting up my own business
and like many others, currently enduring the stresses of home schooling and a complete change of lifestyle in lockdown.
Each week I hope to bring you some thoughts and views on the local and national business landscape.
This week as we start to slowly and carefully emerge from lockdown I must highlight and praise the ingenuity and agility of our local business community. There are far too many examples to mention them all but some of the efforts we have seen in the last couple of months have been phenomenal.
La Dolce Vita went from being closed to operating at capacity with their meal kits, Deli-Lites boxes can now be ordered arrive to your door. You can book virtual appointments at Jack Murphy Jewellers, order shoes online from Cahill Bros. and throughout you were still able to get coffee and craic at the Panic Station at McCooey’s. Our city has even seen new businesses emerge with burritos from Xolo at Grounded and Silverwood Smart Marketing was established.
None of this was happening before lockdown. You can now get hand santizer from Killowen Distillery, sanitizing units from The Exact Group and Hannaways of Hilltown while All3 Studio, Mourne Office Supplies, Brand Elevation, Pearlai and others are providing entire PPE and social distancing solutions. Our schools have stepped up to the plate too with the production of visors from Our Lady’s, St Mary’s, St Marks, Abbey Grammar and others and our teachers completely improvising how they interact with our children.
The generosity shown to our local Trust, Hospice, care homes and charities has been immense. Re-Gen Waste have gone above and beyond as usual, MJM, Norbrook, the Canal Court Hotel and many others have given so generously. The community effort by our charities, Councillors and others, in supporting the most vulnerable in our city and beyond has been fantastic.
For many businesses however, the safe and sensible option was to close and stay at home. I look forward now to seeing Newry Chamber, BID, NMDC, and others help these businesses start to reopen in a safe way when the time is right. We will also never forget the people in our area and across the world who have lost loved ones during this time. Life for those families will never be ‘normal’.
Charles Dickens said in opening A Tale of Two Cities- ‘they were worst of times, but they were the best of times’. Sometimes the worst of times can bring out the best in people. I for one, am extremely proud of the Newry people and I hope you, like me, will try to support our business community as much as you can on the hard road to recovery in the weeks and months ahead.
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