"It is more than just the ice cream and tobacconist shop. It’s the memories and the nostalgia," says owner as Mackle's in Portadown is up for sale

Brendan and Eileen Mackle started the Mackle’s tradition and ran it for decades, with Brendan introducing his own now famous ice cream recipe which has been handed down to the current owners.

The scent of candy and rolling tobacco is etched in the memories of generations of children with people still coming from near and far to visit.

Current owners Kerry Kane and her brother Richard Shannon have vivid memories of their parents Bernadette and Bosco Shannon buying the business from the Mackle family in 1991.

Kerry believes the shop started in the early 1930s but is unsure of the exact year. She believes there were a few people who owned the shop before a woman called Nan Magee took over. She then sold it to Brendan and Eileen Mackle, who hailed from Maghery and where Brendan’s father Tommy owned the Maghery Hotel.

Kerry recalls as a child her family buying the property 35 years ago and has fond memories of living there behind the shop.

When she came home from school her mum would have been in the kitchen behind the shop and the family lived upstairs. She laughed when I asked if the Shannon children were popular at school with parents who owned a sweet and ice cream shop.

She said her family did little to change the shop as the perfect ingredients were already created by the Mackles – and it was such an iconic brand that they kept the Mackle name over the shop door.

“I vividly remember Brendan and Eileen. They were really a big part of helping us transition in here, meeting the local people and customers,” said Kerry.

"They themselves would have been in and out all the time, buying an ice cream and getting their papers. We would have seen them on a regular basis,” she said.

"They were lovely people,” recalls Kerry. She remembers when Brendan passed away her father would regularly bring newspapers and ice cream to Eileen on a Sunday. “She was a lady, an absolute lady. We were very, very fond of both of them.”

Kerry said the family tried to keep Mackle’s as it was. “It’s a formula that works. It never needed changed in anyway.”

She revealed there were a few modern updates, such as new floors, the lottery machine and a bank card reader which were more for the ease of the customers.

Apart from that, the layout, the old cabinets – everything is the same.

There are few other places still selling sweets such as clove rock and midget gems from old fashioned jars. And even fewer selling specialist hand rolling tobacco, smoking pipes and cigars. Kerry reveals they still get a lot of stock from the internationally famous Gawith Hoggarth firm.

"It would be the higher end stuff. We try to do good quality products and give people a bit of variety including in price range,” she said.

“Being a specialist shop you have to keep those old traditional things going,” she said adding Mackle’s has a really good customer base across NI and further afield.

Generations of customers have known Mackle’s ice cream. Kerry said: “We worked in the shop and we would have seen parents come in with children. Those children grew up and brought in their children. And now those children are coming in.

"That’s 35 years of different generations. We actually had a woman in not that long ago who was probably in her 70s. She remembered her grandfather bringing her in here as a child. She said you always remember the hand that brings you into Mackle’s,” she said.

"You are brought in a child and then you continue to come and as an adult you bring your own and again as a grandparent.

"It has become a traditional route that people know. It is more than just the ice cream and the shop. It’s the memories and the nostalgia,” she said.

"Even for today’s generation, for the small kids, it’s the same reaction as it was 35 years ago, with the big wide eyes as there is so much there, so much colour and the smell of the candy and sweets. It’s so, so nice to see.”

When asked what memories stand out, Kerry said: “The customers. Over the years the people, the friends we have made and the people who become family.

"Then the customers we’ve lost over the years spring to mind because there’s been so many really good people.

"It’s the people that make the place. It’s their memories of Mackle’s that make it special,” she said.

Kerry said both her and her brother have got to a stage in their lives where it is time to move on and dearly hope the business and property will be bought over by another family.

"We would like another family to enjoy it and take it on and to make it their own,” she said. “I hope it continues on for another 90 odd years.”

Hannaths Estate Agent is dealing with the sale of the property which is being sold as a ‘going concern’ including fixtures, fittings, stock and building.

Described as one of the most long-standing and revered businesses in Portadown, Mackles Ice Cream and Tobacconist which is ‘undoubtedly an institution’ in Portadown.

The shop, at the front of the building, is a well-appointed commercial unit that spans approximately 520 square feet. Beyond is a further reception room, kitchen and accessing to the rear yard and stores.

The residential accommodation is accessible via a separate entrance into a large hallway leading to four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a further reception room set over three floors. to the accommodation above that is set over three floors. For further information contact Hannaths at 028 3839 9911 or click here