The Tailor Brennan’s Shop

“Clothes may maketh the man but the Tailor makes the Gentleman”

Anon

It is very difficult to imagine that Ballyoughter had a thriving Tailor’s Shop in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. What must be remembered is the parochial nature of life in these times and that people rarely strayed beyond their parish boundaries for goods or services, especially if they could be availed of locally.

The earliest available verified account of the Tailor’s Shop is documented in the 1901 Census. This census return lists Richard Brennan, 40, as head of the household and a Tailor by profession. It also lists his 16 year-old son, Richard, as an Apprentice Tailor. Family folklore suggests that the 40 year-old Richard Brennan was himself an apprentice to his father, Richard Brennan who was born in 1822.

Business appears to have been flourishing in the early 1900s as the 1911 Census lists the 50 year-old Richard Brennan as a Tailor, his son Richard, 27, as a qualified Tailor along with his daughter, Dora, as a Dress Cutter. Richard senior also had two other Tailors and an apprentice Dress Maker in his employ. The two Tailors were John Kehoe and Denis Lawlor. Denis would become his son-in-law in 1929 when he married Julia Brennan, the local primary school teacher. The apprentice Dress Maker was Julia Pender.

It is believed that the Tailor Shop ceased to trade around the 1940s, not long after the death of Richard Brennan in 1937.