Life Is Sweets With Bridie Mooney

Mother’s little helpers… Áine, Agnes, Paddy, Brigid & Bob MON8SEPT25

he sudden shower at 12.30pm suggested that today’s unveiling of the Bridie Mooney’s train station tribute might just be a washout.

For now though, it meant we had a little time with the Mooney clan as we all huddled from the rain.

A little time to share some memories of growing up in The Greatest Sweet Shop In The World.

Such as the time one enterprising young man decided to slip a Choc Ice down the front of his trousers and just pay for a gobstopper. Only Mrs Mooney decided to delay his exit with a gob about the weather. And about football.

And The Beatles. And Lord Of The Rings, book by book.

About everything and anything, in fact, until that Choc Ice had well and truly melted down to the floor.

A happier ending occurred on Christmas Eve 2015, as the town gathered for Bridie Mooney’s retirement from the shop she and her late husband, Robert, had started 62 years earlier. A man approached, more than a little sheepish, and handed over a fiver to the baffled Bridie. “This is for a Mars Bar I stole 36 years ago,” he said, “and it’s been eating away at me ever since…”

As we stood there laughing, the sun came back out, shining just as bright as it had during our fine summer, and so we all headed over to Platform 2 as the crowd began to gather.

Part of a cunning Greystones Town Team plan first announced in April 2022 to turn our train station into an art museum of the town’s most-loved sons and daughters, Bridie follows Ronnie Drew in March and Lizzie Hawkins in November 2023 as her very own 3-metre Corten steel totem – complete with Tom Byrne portrait and a QR code with a brief biography – is unveiled this afternoon.

And to add to the occasion, there are jars and bags of jelly babies, pear drops, strawberry bonbons and beyond, each boasting a specially-created Life Is Sweets With Bridie Mooney label. Just to let the kids from St Patrick’s National School here today know what Willy Wonka really looked like.

Dermod Dwyer launched proceedings with a little history behind the tributes, and a nod those who made it happen, before pointing out that, mysteriously, there didn’t seem to be any dentists present for the launch. When it was Agnes Mooney’s turn to say a few words about her mum, she was quick to point out that all her siblings still had their own teeth. Despite that 24-hours-a-day temptations.

For generations of Greystones kids, Bridie Mooney made our lives sweeter. Literally. An inspiration still, the woman was an influencer long before the term reared its bobble head, driven by a strong community spirit and recognising the ripple effect of a happy child walking out her door. The lady didn’t need social media likes.

And community spirit is the key here. Whenever the Guide announces a Greystones tribute being paid to such internationally-acclaimed figures as John Millington Synge, Averil Deverell, Samuel Beckett or Jack Yeats, there’s a respectful acknowledgement for such worthy recognitions.

By contrast, when we put out the word that Bridie Mooney was about to get her place in the town’s gallery of local heroes, suddenly corks were popping, banjos were being heartily plucked, dogs were howling at the moon and guns were being fired into the air.

It was the same for Ronnie, and will no doubt happen again when Joe Sweeney one day gets his place on our Mount Rushmore.

And that’s because when someone is a big part of all our daily lives for years and years, they come to represent not just a place, but a time, a true sense of identity and pride, a feeling…

That we should celebrate such people, and make sure that future generations recognise their contribution to Greystones life, is a truly wonderful thing, baby…

You can check out the full gallery of hi-res shots from today right about here, and jump back through Mrs Bridie Mooney’s history right over here.