“I left school when I wasn’t yet 15. On the 4th of August 1959, I started working in North Offaly Co-Op. It wasn’t planned, and the teachers in Clara said it wouldn’t be a wise move, that I was bright and should stay in school. My uncle Donal Ward was working in the Co-Op and was talking about a job going there. Things were tough in school, and my ears pricked up. I saw it as an escape hatch – a job and a few bob! People weren’t that very well off at that time, and I’d be earning a bit of money and helping out at home.

On my first day there, 59 years ago, I was brought in by a neighbour called Dick Connor in a Morris Minor car. When I saw the big shop with all its shelves and merchandise, it was daunting for me. Lots of people at that time did what I did – left school young and got on the working ladder. I didn’t know whether I’d stick it, but I was to replace a man called Rody O’Brien, who was leaving. The boss told me that Mr O’Brien would show me around and I was to ask him anything I needed to know. In hindsight, I must have been asking him a lot about where things were. One day he gave me the best piece of training I ever got in my life. When as usual, I asked him where to find something, he caught me by the shoulder and said, “Goson, will you ever do me a favour. The next thing you want to find, will you f*&k off and look for it yourself!”. At the time, I was upset, but it was the greatest thing that had happened to me. From then on, I started to look for stuff myself and gradually got the hang of it. I realised that it was the best way to learn the ropes.

On lunch breaks, my uncle used to bring me down to the church to light a candle and say a few prayers. I wasn’t the only one; several people from different companies around the town did the same; Williamses’ and Egan’s were two that I can think of. I didn’t know it at the time, but it kept me on the straight and narrow. If you told someone you were going to the church on your lunch break now, they’d probably look at you funny!
I began to enjoy my job and got to know the trade very well. After a few years, I found an application form for a hardware course with the Irish Hardware Association in the waste paper basket and decided to apply. Doing courses wasn’t encouraged by the co-op because, as far as they were concerned, they taught you what you needed to know, and that was it, but I just wanted to do it a little bit better. I did an exam in Dublin and got 87 out of 100, which wasn’t bad. Throughout my 33 years working for North Offaly Co-Op, I was offered several opportunities to work for other companies but took none of them. It wasn’t just any old job for me; it was something that I loved and was very important to me. It was a happy environment working with friends and family, even though the money wasn’t huge. The late Paddy Cusack was another staff member there who was a great man and mentor to me. He only died last year.

It’s significant that we are having this conversation now because North Offaly Co-op was founded in 1918, 100 years ago. We had a little reunion a few months ago, and there were 40 of us there with our partners. It was a night to reminisce and talk about how time passes by. When the business was 50 years founded in 1968, the then manager, Hugh Mahon, made a statement that stuck with me. It was so relevant in those times, maybe not so much now. He said that the staff didn’t just work in the Co-Op but dedicated their lives to the Co-Op for the betterment of the Co-Op movement. That was a huge statement because the principle of the co-op at the time was to provide goods and services for the broader community but mainly for the farming community. A profit had to be made, but it wasn’t the primary purpose of the business, and I was working for the betterment of the community. The friendship of the people I worked with was also very important, and these values were instilled in me. There was very little of the ‘what’s in it for me’ or ‘me fein’ attitude that you see so much of today.

Avonmore took over North Offaly Co-Op in the mid-1990s, and the whole ethos changed. It was now about profitability, projections, margins, targets and marketing – words that we had never heard used before. There is nothing wrong with that but the penny dropped for me that you didn’t necessarily have to know about the products to run the business. Things had changed massively and were never going to be the same again. I decided after 33 years that it was time for me to move on. I retired on excellent terms with Avonmore and bought shares for 45 old pence each!

When I left, I had no problem getting a job. People were knocking on the door and ringing the phone. I had a reputation for providing good service due to the training I got. Everyone else who worked at North Offaly Co-Op provided the same standards. One thing I’ll always remember from my course was the definition of a good salesperson – a pleasant personality who knows what they are talking about. It doesn’t matter how many courses or degrees you do; in 2018, it still holds. Regardless of the automation in businesses now, if you go into a shop and pleasant people do not meet you, you won’t remember it as a good experience, and you may never return. In business, if you don’t have friendly people who know what they are talking about, how will your company do well?”