Cork Nostalgia: Resilient Douglas will rise again as it has done before

A view of Douglas west in September, 1978.

There has been a huge outpouring of sympathy for small businesses, their staff, locals who shopped there and everyone else impacted by the closure of the centre.

With much demolition and rebuilding to be done in the aftermath of the car park blaze, and no guarantees of when the centre will reopen, Douglas residents are also having to adjust to new ways to access much-needed services that were based in the centre — from the Post Office to the local library.

The Echo’s Rory Noonan, himself a Douglas native, summed it up earlier this week.

“It is another sad incident for the village, coming seven years or so after the floods destroyed many parts of it.”

But while locals are understandable worried in the short-term, as Rory said, Douglas has been through difficult times in the past and has proven its resilience over the years.

While the fields and hedgerows of the past have been replaced by housing businesses and busy streets, some landmarks remain.

St Patrick’s Woollen Mills, founded in 1882, is still a thriving economic centre in the area, although it has moved on from its original purpose as seen here in 1929.