Ireton’s Shop Celebrates Its 100th Customer!

Feel the love…

t was a big day for Greystones legend Leo Ireton today. A momentous day.

Ireton’s original Kilcoole outlet

The balloons were flying, the flags were unfurled and the party poppers were popped when one of Greystones’ most iconic shops, Ireton’s, celebrated its 100th customer earlier this afternoon.

A grocery shop that’s been in the town since 1904, current owner Leo Ireton first moved into the premises with his greengrocer parents back in 1963, after the family tried a short stint on Kilcoole main street. Back then, Leo was a young man, in love with cinema, with the road, and with his adopted home.

Ms Turnpike

So, it was hardly surprising that emotions were high when, over 50 years since first opening its doors in Greystones, Ireton’s welcomed its 100th customer. And the lucky shopper in question, Mrs Marjorie Turnpike, of Polly Villas, Killincarrig, was both excited and delighted. If a little confused.

“I only came back to swap a packet of blue J-Cloths I bought in 1974,” she said whilst being handed a glass of champagne and a Cohiba Behike cigar. “I meant to get the red ones, and I just haven’t had the time until now to bring them back. Leo was very accommodating – took ’em back without the receipt. Which was handy, as it had turned to dust.”
Selling everything from Jeyes Fluid to jam, and up to eight other items inbetween, Ireton’s have seen many competitors come and go over the decades in Greystones, managing to stay open long after The Shopping Basket, Pat Flynn’s, O’Donoghues and a host of other stores bit the dust – thanks to a cunning combination of stocking only the bare essentials and showing no apparent need to turn a profit.
“It’s no coincidence that our 100th customer came through repeat business,” smiled Leo later, as he wrestled the last champagne bottle from a surprisingly strong Mrs. Turnpike. “Call it old-school charm, call it good manners, but people always come back to Ireton’s. In the case of Marjorie here, it may have taken 41 years, and the wrong J-Cloths, but she came back to our shop.

“That just proves that we’re doing something right…”

You can find more Leo Ireton in our archives right here.