PICTURES: St Vincent de Paul opens doors of its new shop in Tipperary

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There is a new addition to the streetscape of the Main Street of Tipperary Town, with the opening on Thursday August 8 of the St. Vincent de Paul shop, at the corner of Main Street and Bridge Street.

The Store Manager, Chris Butler, was on hand to welcome guests and was joined by staff and volunteers of the charity from Tipperary and from different parts of the country.

Piper Seamus Purcell and his Mum Eimear, entertained the attendance and Archdeacon Eugene Everard, P.P., Tipperary Town and Fr. Luke McNamara, Benedictine Monk and Priest at Glenstal Abbey, read the prayers of blessing.

The clergy were joined by members of the local conference who assisted with offering prayers of blessing.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) was founded in Ireland in 1844. It is the largest voluntary charitable organisation in Ireland.

During its history, SVP has helped people in need through Famine, a Civil War, a War of Independence, two World Wars, a Pandemic and several economic recessions. The charity shops are a very important aspect of the service SVP provides.

Not only do they provide people with new and lightly worn items at affordable prices, they also provide an income source for the Society, which is recycled directly back into the community.

A view to the Main Street from the St. Vincent de Paul shop in Tipp town.

Dermot McGilloway, who is the National Development Manager for St. Vincent de Paul, explained that the shop in Tipp town is part of a national and international network.

"We have over 1,600 stores globally and we are really trying to promote Vincentian values in the work that we do. Here in Ireland we are the biggest charity retailer in the country, with over 230 shop, and in every county in Ireland.

"We are a fundraiser but it is not our primary objective. We are here as a service provider. The core work of St. Vincent de Paul is home visitation, so it is calling into people in their homes, trying to understand what their needs are.

"It might be bills to be paid but it could also be support and friendship and keeping in touch with people who are quite isolated. The Society is very conscious of the fact that poverty does isolate people but other things isolate people as well.

"So we see these shops as being instrumental in trying to reconnect people so it is important that these shops are bringing people back together again. Shops are working to a triple bottom line, trying to generate social value, environmental value of keeping clothes in use as long as possible and the financial value of raising funds for the SVP.

"Any funds raised here are used by their local conferences to do their home visits. This is our 7th shop in the county and we have our order fulfilment centre in Nenagh. We are very locally based and it is local members that are driving this who operation forward.

"We are unique in our retail offering that its not just some hard nosed business angle that we are looking at as it is much more important for us that people can get access to Vincentian services. They can call into the shop as a gateway to try and contact the SVP more generally.

"We have a hand of friendship programme where we have translated our work into 19 languages so we are really trying to reach out to people who are coming into new communities. The shops provide access to affordable clothing, we have a wider price range than anybody else.

"We really put the emphasis on affordable and good value. People who donate clothes wouldn't want us giving them away, so we don't, but we have a really broad range of prices here to make sure that whatever peoples budget is they will be able to cater for themselves", concluded Dermot.

The cutting of the ribbon to declare the shop officially open was carried out by the volunteers and before the event concluded Chris Butler expressed his thanks to the volunteers and scheme workers and to those in the conference for their support in getting the shop up and running in Tipp town.