Ben Dunne topic

Ben Dunne was born in 1908 on the shores of Carlingford Lough, in the Co. Down village of Rostrevor. His first business venture was picking berries with his brother which they sold to buy sheep, hoping to raise the fare to emigrate to the America. However, he was noticed by a local businessman as a young man who had a good business acumen and commercial ability and he remained in Ireland.

In 1926 he moved to Drogheda to his first job as an apprentice at Andersons Drapery store. He worked there without any pay for the first three months when he progressed to earning 50 shillings per week.

With a good grounding in Andersons, he then moved to Cameron's Drapery Shop in Longford and then to Roches Stores in Cork in the mid 1930's where he gained wide experience in buying and there he made many contacts that were to provide invaluable in later years. Ben Dunne met his wife Nora Maloney during his time at Roches Stores and they were married for 44 years and had six children.

As the company expanded, Ben Dunne began travelling overseas and participating in annual conventions and seminars held by the National Retail Merchants Association in the USA. In 1970 they honoured him by electing him to the Board of Directors and that year he was selected as the 'Most Outstanding World Retailer'

Everyone who worked with Ben Dunne said he had an instinctive feel for what would sell well and he was intent on ordering what he believed customers wanted. Staff remember him as 'a bit of a genius who was often tough but always fair'.

When he died in 1983, Ben Dunne had overseen the development of 58 stores in the Republic of Ireland, 18 in Northern Ireland and one in Spain.