Paul's ‘Auld Shite' strikes a chord with Clonakilty shoppers

Some businesses have marketing managers, advertising budgets and spend an absolute fortune attracting customers, but very often it’s the simple things that work best – including a provocative curbside sign.

It’s all over Facebook at the moment – the sign advertising Paul Nolan’s collection of curios at McCurtain Hill in Clonakilty. And it’s a big hit on Joe.ie, Ireland’s first and only men’s lifestyle website.

Paul Nolan said people pop in all the time to tell him they like the sign. He explains its origins saying: ‘I had two old grannies in one day and one of them turned to the other and said, “This is all auld shite,” so I thought, yeah, you are right, and I put it on the sign outside.’

Paul previously worked in the bar business – first in his parent’s pub in Rosscarbery and then at The Fiddler’s Green in Clonakilty. ‘That,’ he said, ‘was before the smoking ban decimated the business’.

‘I stayed with it for a year, but decided to relocate to Spain. It was when I came back, five years ago, that I started looking to get a proper job but there was nothing out there. So I started selling the pub memorabilia and it went from there.’

Paul said the business is doing okay, but it is not as good as it is in the city where there are a lot more people who are into retro and up-cycling. 

But being your own boss and the 12-5.30pm opening hours have got to have their upside.