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Barber Tom celebrates 40 years in business
From Taoiseach to bishops, All-Ireland winning GAA captains to mayors, barber Tom Nally, who this week celebrates 40 years in business at High Street, has cut the hairs of them all.
The list of clients, who frequented Tom’s city centre barbers over the years, is a ‘who’s who’ of Irish and Galway society, with politics and sports personalities regularly dropping in.
Among them, Joe McDonagh, former President of the GAA, Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan and several Mayors of Galway City over the past four decades.
Kerry football legend, six times All-Ireland winner, Darragh Ó Sé is a regular when in Galway; and Gary Fahey, Galway’s All-Ireland winning captain in 2001 even popped in for a cut the Friday before the final in Croke Park.
The arrival of the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the noughties, while on an election campaign whistle-stop tour of Galway, was perhaps the ‘celebrity’ visit that generated the most interest among the general public. “It was amazing after that visit,” recalls Tom.
“All of the people that came in, who I’d never seen before or since, and they asked: ‘What seat did he sit in and did he pay for the haircut?’. That’s the truth, there were so many asking that. The answer always was: ‘This is the seat he sat on and Frank Fahey (FF Galway West TD at the time) paid for it!’ One lad said – ‘Sure that fella never paid for a thing in his life!”
Like Bertie, who chatted to Tom about the Dublin footballers and about being a referee, clients pop in as much for the chat as they do for a hair-cut.
“I enjoy going in there every single day – it’s very socially oriented. Coming in for a chat is a big part of it.”
The relationship between a man and his barber is unique – regulars tell Tom all sorts of things. “Some things I don’t want to hear,” he chuckles.
Though Tom’s shop on High Street is in a prime location to attract passersby, the majority of his clientele is repeat business.
“There’s passing trade but 80% of my customers would be regulars. A lot of them would be sportsmen, particularly GAA . . . I have people coming into me from all corners of the county – and I can tell you, the country guys now are just as trendy as any townie! I remember a barber saying to me when I started, ‘Tom, you won’t get the people you expect you’ll get and you’ll get the people you don’t expect to get, but as long as you get enough of them at the end of the day you’ll be happy enough’.
“I’ve lots of customers whose hair I cut 40 years ago. The last person whose hair I cut today was Noel Elwood (Elle’s café, Shop Street) and I cut his hair 40 years ago. There’d be quite a few like him. The customer that has been coming here the longest is a fella called Ronnie Ward, a retired postman, from Shantalla. He’s still going, and more importantly he still has hair!”
For another regular, a hair-cut at Tom’s has become a pre-wedding ritual. “He got married three times and I cut his hair each time before the wedding. The third time I said to him: ‘If this doesn’t work out, change your barber!’ But it has worked.”
A well-known and accomplished club football referee, Tom, a Shantalla native, has a lifetime association with St Michael’s football club and Rahoon/Newcastle hurling club.
Tom started as an apprentice to John Nestor when he was just 14 or 15 and fresh out of ‘The Tech’ on Fr Griffin Road. Nestor opened up the barbers in the 1960s, and took over the drapery that was known as Small Gleeson’s.
“Someone once said to me: ‘You scrub floors first and then you scrub heads’. There was nothing formal about the apprenticeship. You were judged on the progress you made,” he says.
Tom’s progress was steady, and in 1974 he took over the lease, firstly downstairs in the basement – it was 25 years ago when he returned to the ground floor of High Street where he originally started.
During those 40 years, haircut styles have changed, and come full circle.
“It’s changed big time. When I started it was very short hair. Then it went to long hair, which was in the late 1970s. And then through the years you had the flat-tops, undercuts, steps, mullets . . . we’ve done them all at this stage, and I intend doing a lot more.”
The business environment has changed, too. “There’re more barber shops now than ever. It’s got more competitive than ever.”
Tom is not content at looking back: he’s preparing for the future and constantly evolving the business.
The shop itself has a fresh new look, styled by La Maison Chic, a local interior design business; and he’s added new lines of affordable luxury products, and even a Facebook page.
His trusty lieutenant is Jacqueline Byrnes, who has been working with Tom for 25 years and trade is so good at the minute, they’re looking to recruit new barbers.
Tom’s thirst for cutting hair, and his barber business, is as strong today as it was when he started.
“I absolutely love it. I love coming into that shop every day. I keep fit. I do a daily swim in Galway Bay and referee matches. I’ve no intention of retiring. As long as my health continues, retirement doesn’t come into it.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
