Helen Clear: HELEN CLEAR, who has died aged 89, founded The Bray Bookshop in Bray, Co Wicklow, in 1972, setting up a business that in time developed into the Dubray Books outlets.
She set up the bookshop when she was 52 years old and had already raised six of her seven children. She had been asked by her husband Kevin: "What are you going to do for the rest of your life?"
A voracious reader, she had during the 1960s come into contact with the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Freidan, and her developing feminism also formed a context for her decision to establish her business.
Her involvement with, and knowledge of, the retail trade went back a lifetime as her parents, Michael and Elizabeth Quinn, ran grocery, bakery, and drapery businesses in her native Castlecomer in Co Kilkenny. She was one of six children and had many happy memories of her childhood and adolescence. She played mixed hockey, dyed her hair with peroxide and, according to her sister Betty, was happy to rush off to dances with any young man who had a car.
During her teenage years she met Kevin Clear, who was from Dublin but had cousins in Castlecomer. After leaving school she travelled to Manchester to train as a nurse, but came home after the outbreak of war. She was 22 years old when she married Kevin and during the following years she raised her family and ran a home in Dublin that included Kevin's uncle Frank, and her mother Elizabeth.
Kevin Clear had a varied career that over the years involved journalism, publishing, representing the fishing and wholesale grocers' sectors, and the founding of the Irish Liberal Party. In the early 1970s the family sold their home in Stillorgan and moved to Greystones, Co Wicklow, as part of Helen's plan to open a bookshop.
In a note written in 2001 she recorded: "We opened the Bray Bookshop on the Quinsboro Road in 1972. I was absolutely frightened out of my wits . . . On the morning we opened I got a great lift - Mrs Harvey, from the fruit and vegetable shop, determined to be the first customer, arrived early and presented me with a bunch of flowers, wishing me success. It warmed my heart and lessened the terror."
She got great support from book reps and wholesalers in terms of selecting books, but also enjoyed having her own input into what stock went on her shelves.
"Then there were the Bray people who gave me great support. Colbert Martin whose book Bridge Below the Town sold in great volumes, and Joe Lochman, who always cheered me up with his zany jokes and great good humour. There were other local authors who also supported me: Marie and Seamus Heaney; Diarmaid Ó Muirithe; Dorine Rohan; Peter Driscoll; and Kate Cruise O'Brien. It was a pleasure to meet these people and many others as well." Others that she came to know included Éamon de Buitléar, Ned McGuire and Pat Cuff.
Schoolchildren visited the shop at lunchtime to look at the books while eating their lunches, prompting the erection of a sign: "Do not eat sandwiches, fruit, ice cream, etc, or drink minerals." On the same day the sign went up, a man popped his head in the door and shouted: "How about spaghetti?" She changed the sign to: "No eating or drinking in this shop."
She was helped by Josie Corcoran of the Dundrum Bookshop, who became a great friend, and by bookseller Fred Hanna. Corcoran was on the Booksellers' Association Committee and in time Clear became a member. As her daughter Gemma recalled in a eulogy during Helen's funeral mass at Glasthule, Co Dublin, membership of the committee gave the two women a perfect opportunity for regular visits to town where they combined shopping and a fine lunch with attendance at committee meetings.
"I loved the shop on the Quinsboro Road and chatting to the children and women about our daily lives and I always feel grateful to the people of Bray for their kindness and support," she recalled in her note.
By the time daughter Gemma and her husband became involved with the shop in 1980, Clear had a well-established business. Her focus had been more on the selling of books and Gemma Clear and her husband took on the task of administration.
In 1988 Gemma Clear and her husband Kevin took over the business and Helen Clear worked alongside them. They moved to a larger outlet on Bray Main Street and in 1990 opened the Dublin Bookshop on Grafton Street. In time the Dubray Books chain was born with outlets in Blackrock, Rathmines, Stillorgan and Dún Laoghaire in Dublin, as well as in Kilkenny and Galway.
When she was approaching 80 years of age, Helen Clear discussed with Gemma the idea of retiring from the shop. After a time she announced she would disappear little by little, so it would hardly be noticed. And this is what she did, working shorter days and weeks as the years passed. During the run up to Christmas 2005 she announced that the shop was getting a bit hectic for her, and she left saying she'd come back in the new year. And so came about her final withdrawal from her beloved shop, at the age of 86.
As well as being a businesswoman, Helen Clear was very much at the centre of her family and regularly hosted dinners at the weekend in her home in the Burnaby, Greystones, for visiting children, partners and grandchildren.
As her daughter Olivia recalled during the Mass in Glasthule, she liked good French wine, red or white, and the dinners were always the occasion for discussion and laughter and sometimes even singing. Her final years were spent in Glasthule in her own apartment. On the Sunday before she died, she visited the woods in Clara, Co Wicklow, with her daughters Maria and Felicity, and grandchild Ruairí, to see the bluebells. A few days later she died at home, in her sleep.
Helen Clear was predeceased by her husband Kevin in 1989. She is survived by her children Louis, Paula, Gemma, Michele, Olivia, Maria and Felicity, her sisters May and Betty, 13 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Helen Clear: born December 9th 1919; died May 28th, 2009