They may have aged a few years but that didn’t stop two brothers from Clonakilty re-creating a picture that was taken of them over three decades ago. Eamonn and Brendan Walsh were originally snapped outside their parents’ shop on Pearse Street during the installation of the town’s sewerage scheme during the mid-1980s.
BY KIERAN O’MAHONY
THEY may have aged a few years but that didn’t stop two brothers from Clonakilty re-creating a picture that was taken of them over three decades ago. Eamonn and Brendan Walsh were originally snapped outside their parents’ shop on Pearse Street during the installation of the town’s sewerage scheme during the mid-1980s.
And with the town undergoing major drainage and re-surfacing works once more, the brothers decided to re-create that very picture of them – in the same location, with the same props, under the iconic Coca-Cola umbrella.
Eamonn, who now owns Walsh’s Londis, and his brother Brendan, who is deputy principal of Sacred Heart Secondary School, posed for the updated picture during lunchtime last week –much to the delight of onlookers.
‘I think it was one of my parents who took the original photo during a Coca-Cola promotion that was running, and Brendan and myself were probably just home from school and we had a bottle of Cherry Coke on the table, which had just been launched at the time,’ Eamonn told The Southern Star.
Eamonn had the original photo at home all this time, and came across it about six months ago when he got the idea to recreate it because Pearse Street was once again being dug up.
‘I actually asked a sales rep from Coca-Cola if he could source an umbrella like the one we had, and luckily he got us one, and I then got the promotion sign made up too. We had to act fast in recreating the shot due to health and safety, but the officers on site were great in allowing us to pose again in the same spot.’
Eamonn has the original photo up on his shop window for the past four weeks and is running a competition for customers to guess the year it was taken.
‘People seem to be struggling with guessing what year the photo was taken, but I would encourage all customers to have a go and enter the competition when they come into shop. A lot of customers didn’t know who the two boys in the photo were, so we’ve let the cat out of the bag in that regard, but they still have to guess the year.’
Another reason that Eamonn re-created the picture was to highlight the fact that Clonakilty is open for business, despite the drainage and re-surfacing works.
‘The support of people has been incredible and we greatly appreciate all our customers and everyone in the town is very excited about the completion of the project.’
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