'We just couldn't keep going': Cork's oldest barbershop to close this weekend

Cork’s oldest barbershop, The Baldy Barber is set to close its doors for the final time this weekend, as its owner Mick Moriarty says that Blackpool has been “decimated”.

Mick’s late father Peter Moriarty established The Baldy Barber nearly 90 years ago in 1937 at 20 Merchants Quay.

It has been a family business since then, with Peter’s brother and Mick’s uncle Michael also working there before Mick took over.

The business, now located on 6a Great William O’Brien St in Blackpool, will open for the last time this Saturday, November 8.

Mr Moriarty made headlines in January when he shared the news that he would be forced to close due to high costs of operating, explaining that rising energy bills and Vat had made it difficult to stay in business.

He told The Echo at the time that this was due to rising costs, saying that he was “awake at 2am in the morning worrying” but didn’t want to put extra costs onto families who have been coming for generations to get their hair cut.

“I always said that I would never overcharge a customer, which was part of my reason for closing,” he added.

However, in April of this year, he said: “Since there hasn’t been interest in buying our business, we’re taking down the ‘For Sale’ sign”, and announced that they would remain open six days a week for the time being.

Mr Moriarty has now announced that he will be retiring after 59 years in the job, and closing the doors of the barbershop for good.

“The Baldy Barber business will be no longer,” he said.

Mr Moriarty told The Echo it was bittersweet to be closing.

“It’s been hard going.

“I’d be 60 years working there next March, but we just couldn’t keep going.”

He explained that the area has changed hugely in the time he has been in business, and that high street businesses like his can’t compete with shopping centres, especially with so many vacant premises around them.

“The area, Blackpool, is decimated. We had five pubs on the street that are all gone. Shopping centres are beating us big time and they’re open seven days a week.”

Mr Moriarty said that he actually lives in Ballincollig and not Blackpool himself, though his father was from the northside, and that he looks forward to spending more time out and about there, including taking walks in the Ballincollig Regional Park, as well as playing golf.

He extended a thank you to all his customers down through the years, including two or three people who had been his father’s customers and still come to him for haircuts.

He also thanked all his staff through the years, including Donncha O’Connell, who has worked at The Baldy Barber for 26 years, looked after the shop while Mr Moriarty was recovering from surgery, and came in to help out when the premises flooded.

Mr O’Connell previously made international headlines when he cut the hair of a regular customer, who has autism, in the back of his mother’s car.