Little shop of delights

Valerie, which Lodge are you in?

I'm in Mountjoy 29.

Is that purely a women's lodge?

It is indeed. We meet in the Lodge Rooms in Bonds Street.

How long have you been in the Lodge?

I joined the Lodge in May 1985.

So you have been there a long time.

I have yes. I became Mistress in 1989 and had a break for a few years, and, believe it or not, I'm back as Mistress again.

How did you get roped in again?

Just...just voted in by the rest of the girls, you know?

Did you not say 'No you're alright girls?'

No! I enjoy it, you know? I don't mind. Although I think someone else has to have a go now, you know? I enjoy what I'm doing.

Right. What's the highest rank you have every held in the Lodge?

Well Worshipful Mistress. You can't get any higher in the Lodge, but then there is the District offices, so you can be District mistress. I took over from the late Mrs Holmes, but I only did that for a couple of years because there are meetings you have to go to and with me having my own business I couldn't meet the obligation.

You have a gorgeous wee shop here on Irish Street. It's one of those 'Olde Curiosity Shoppe' shops that you occasionally come across.

It is. It's a real woman's shop, but it's amazing when you browse round what you see and everybody that comes in says about the lovely smell.

It is lovely. It's just like cinnamon biscuits when you come in.

It is, yeah.

How long have you been running this shop?

Well, we had a newsagents for about 20 years, and a couple of years ago we lost it in a fire.

Oh right. Here?

Yeah, just next door.

Right.

This wall was knocked down. We actually had the two shops and the shop was locked up on the Saturday night and we came down on the Sunday morning and it was a disaster. We had no shop.

You must have been heartbroken.

Oh, it was awful! It was.

What happened, do you know?

It was electrical. A milk fridge.

You are joking...

Aye, it went on fire in the middle of the night and we were left with nothing.

When you think about all the plastic wrappings you get in a shop it must have gone up like a tinderbox.

Everything was gone. You lifted things and they just went to smithereens in your hands. We salvaged nothing. We had nothing left at the end of it. So after that, you know they say you sit back and go 'What are we going to do?' Then I decided that I always enjoyed doing the gifts, so I decided that I wanted to do this here and I have not regretted it at all.

How long are you in this shop now?

This one? I am up and running about a year doing the gifts but before that we had the shop for years and years and years.

And it's going well for you?

Yep, we are really busy.

It must be so heartening after being such a disaster to come back to?

Yeah, it was. It was very hard.

Do you know the thing I really love? It's the fact that you have all the old jars of sweets in behind the counter.

Oh! (laughs) Do you see these jars? Do you see everybody that comes in? They stand and the stare.

There's something about sweets out of a big glass jar...

Do you what, when people come in here, they look at the jars and they say 'Oh, I mind them', and 'Can I taste this?' One of the ones was 'Spanish Gold, the sweet tobacco?

Och yes!

It takes people right back. Funny, I don't remember the Spanish Gold, but I do remember the toasted teacakes.

I remember the toasted teacakes alright, but I also remember the Spanish tobacco. I didn't like it now, I have to say.

Aye, it's not kids that's coming in for it, it's older people, but all these jars tell a story...

Oh! Midget gems! Midget gems!

Yeah.

Do you know the ones I used to absolutely love and you can't get them now? The triangle-shaped ones...perfume bonbons.

Yes. I've seen them.

Where?

The man that delivers to me has them. The wee diamonds?

Aye!

He has them as well.

I loved them but they used to wreck the roof of your mouth and cut your tongue.

Aye, he has them as well.

My goodness...so in addition to being a shop owner, you went back into the Lodge? Have there been any notable happenings over the years; any trips away or anything that you can tell me about?

We go to Scotland every year and I would organise or be one of the organisers.

Is there something in particular in Scotland that you go to?

Oh we go to the Scottish Twelfth.

Oh right.

We go there every July. We've been doing that for years. Away back we organised a day trip and we all went to Ayr for the day, and some of us came back with goldfish.

Goldfish? Did you stop off at a fun fair or something?

No! We just seen these, and they were amazing the size of them, so we ended up buying them.

Forgive my curiosity, but...how did you get them back here on a boat?

(laughs) In bags. We just looked after them and some of them lived for quite a while. We have lad lots of outings over the years. Och, we've had happiness over the years, sadness too, all sorts of things, but we are a good bunch and everybody's close.

It sounds like a real sisterhood.

It is, very much so.

What sort of other things do you do, other than celebrating the Twelfth, and observing things like that? What sort of social things do you do for women?

We have our night out at Christmas, we go out for a meal, organise bus trips, go away shopping...

How important is it for the old members of the Lodge to have access to those kinds of outings? Would they be isolated without them?

We have one older member and she never misses - Ivy Haire. She is our oldest member. Ivy never misses. I think we have 30-odd on the books at the minute and we have a good bunch of girls comes down every month from Donemana.

So the Lodge is a real women's social networking group as well then, is it?

It is indeed.