Trade Names: Morton's has served Rathmines and Ranelagh well. Through lean and good times, through most of the last century and all of this one, it's been fishmonger, greengrocer, butchery, supermarket, deli, off-licence and flower-seller to the population of the two Rs. Rose Doyle reports

Better known in the locality than any supermarket chain could ever be, today's shop is owned and run by a family rooted in the area for generations, and on both sides too. Things will be staying that way.

"I'm committed to keeping Morton's the unusual and interesting shop it is," says Gary Morton, the man currently at the coalface - with his mother Iris and brother Alan - of the business.

Morton's is quintessentially a local store, a place to meet and be seen, to dally, chat and shop alongside people you know. With the LUAS 50 metres away from the stylish frontage on Dunville Avenue, it's a case of things coming full circle from Morton's fishmonger, fruit 'n veg beginnings in l934 - and from a time when Iris Morton (nee Bredin) recalls the earlier trams making their way through Ranelagh and Rathmines, delivering customers.

The way Iris remembers it, Morton's has forever been a part of her life. Her story puts the beginnings nicely into the context of the times.

"My grandmother used come down from York Avenue in Rathmines to buy fish and vegetables here," she remembers, "and when I was about eight years old I used come for piano lessons in Moyne Road, just round the corner, and buy 1d sweets from Mrs Tierney in her small, dark shop. Then I would call on my aunt at 41 Beechwood Avenue for hot scones. Mrs and Mr Morton lived in Annesley Park then and by the time I met my husband Albert Morton, he had started in the shop and bought Mrs Tierney's corner shop. That happened in about l948/49 and I met him in l951 at a Sandford Parish Dance. It cost 2/6d to get in. The Morton family were living over the shop then and it was well established."

Gary, all the while deferring to his mother's superior recall of the finer points of the family story, gives his word on the beginnings.

"It began in l934 with a small fish, fruit and veg shop run by my grandparents, Charles and Esther Morton, in what was part of the larger premises we now own. They rented and used go to the Smithfield markets every morning. I used go there myself in the 1960s . . ."

Iris remembers her father-in-law going to the markets on his bike, his purchases later being delivered by horse and cart. "We still deal with some of the original suppliers," she says.

"My grand-parents worked hard in the business," Gary says, "I very much doubt they'd time even for holidays. My grandmother was a small lady. She was a Kennedy from Donnybrook and was married at 16. She was Catholic and became C of I to marry my grandfather, who was a serious man, in the way people are when they're devoted to running a business. My father was born in l927 and the shop would have played a huge part in his growing up, and in that of his siblings."

Albert Morton, father of Gary and husband to Iris, was the first born of Charles and Ester Morton's five children. The shop was about 15 years old when expansion began and they bought the premises they'd until then rented from Mr Arthur Robinson as well as the next-door-but one corner house - where Mrs Tierney had once sold sweets.

"The family lived in the back and the front room of the dwelling house became a grocers," Iris explains, "selling bread, butter, sugar, flour." In this way the first steps were taken towards what would become today's supermarket.

The Morton shops were separated by a cottage until that building came up for sale in l962/63.

"My father-in-law Charles wanted to pay £800 for the cottage but in the end had to pay £1,200 in old money," Iris says. "The really big change came after that. We had architectural plans drawn up and a whole new front with inch square tiles in pale yellow, dark red and blue put on. Magic in those days! My husband made all the gondolas (shelves) himself. We just worked, and worked! In time we developed the back of the shop and built stores.

"We incorporated a butchery when Mick Long moved in in the mid-1970s and in l998 bought the garden behind what is now Debbie Dettling's (clothes shop) and incorporated a kitchen."

Poignantly, butcher Mick Long died on the same day in l996 as Albert Morton.

Gary, enthusiastic about the development of a kitchen, points out that it does a full outside catering job, preparing meals, salads, soups and more daily.

There's never been a time when Morton's was less than a family affair. For the longest time founders and begetters Esther and Charles Morton ran things with their sons Albert and Charles (aka Buster). Albert spent a few post-war years in the RAF ("which sorted out his itchy feet . . ." according to his son)while Buster concentrated mainly on looking after the fish end of things. Charles and Iris Morton's four offspring, Gary, Jackie, Tracey and Alan, all helped out after school when, Iris smiles, "they wanted pocket money."

Staff too helped Mortons become what it is - notably Mary Donagher who has given 39 years service.Charles Morton died in l979, his wife Esther 14 years later in l993.

"In the l970s," Gary explains, "a third generation became involved when my younger brother Alan and my cousin Eric, my Uncle Buster's son, came on board. Through the l980s my father, mother, uncle Buster, Eric and Alan continued to develop things gradually. We expanded, put in a few cold rooms. Wines came in the l990s and eventually, the kitchen."

Gary, who studied engineering in TCD, confined his involvement to summertime work. Degree in hand he went on to become production manager of a factory in Tallaght. The time came, at the end of 2002, when Eric Morton moved to set up his own business and Gary, at the beginning of 2003, joined his mother and brother Alan in the business. Buster Morton, Eric's father, continues as a director some 60 years after he first began working in the business.

"You have to stay a little ahead and special in the fresh side of things," he says, "the butchery, fish and veg, game and the deli. We're delighted to have florist Ann Coughlan in the shop. She joined us in l999 and is a real addition."

His own children are aged 19, 17, 14 and 12 and he says the choice about whether or not they will go into the business is up to them. But with shopkeeping so firmly a part of the family gene - Madge Morton, grand-aunt to Gary and Charles Morton's sister, once owned a fish shop at the corner of Ashfield Road - the chances that someone will move in are reasonably high.