Mayo independent pharmacy is celebrating its silver jubilee
by Tom Gillespie
ROWLAND'S Pharmacy is an independent pharmacy which has a retail store at Main Street, Castlebar, and is owned and ran by Fiona Rowland since 2000.
But it wasn't always a pharmacy.
The history of the building can be traced to the licensed trade, dating back over 100 years.
Fiona explained: “It has been a pub and in the possession of the extended Rowland family since 1921.
“My late father Jimmy bought it from his cousins in the early 1960s.
“None of us were interested in the bar trade. My mother is a qualified midwife and most of her sisters were nurses and midwives.
“I was in college in Galway where I did science. I lived and worked in Liverpool for eight years. I studied pharmacy there and worked in one of the hospitals and in community pharmacy.”
Fiona, who employs four staff members, continued: “I came back and was working in Dublin. My father was ill so I came back working for Gerry Flynn in Claremorris. That was really interesting.
“Then an opportunity came to open up here.
That was in 2000 and I'm 25 years at it here in town.”
Said Fiona: “I have got tremendous support from people who used to come for a drink in the pub. Now they come for tablets!
“I must say all my old classmates are fantastic. It was wonderful coming back to town and having that support.”
Fiona went to primary school in Castlebar and boarded in Claremorris but she repeated the Leaving Certificate in Castlebar.
Of the business, she stated: “We do all prescriptions here, we are open and welcome to all. We are generalists like all pharmacies.
“It is interesting and varied work. No two customers are the same. No requests are the same but we deal with them all evenhandedly.”
Fiona reflects on the changing face of Castlebar's main street: “The street has changed an awful lot, in fact dramatically.
“We all grew up on the Main Street, as did so many other kids. That’s when people lived over the shop and the street was full.”
Some years ago local travel agent Fergus Kilkelly highlighted the fact that on Main Street in the 1950s there was 195 residents living on the street, employed on the street were 160 full-time people in 49 retail outlets, not counting the owners of the businesses. Everybody lived overhead their business in those days.
Fiona continued: “We are coming into ‘flu season. We will be running the ‘flu season and Covid injections come September. Anyone requiring the ‘flu jab will find us very open and welcoming. If they don’t, if they just want information, they can come in and ask.
“We are a local healthcare provider for the community and surrounding areas of Castlebar.
“We provide free consultation with a pharmacist and healthcare advice in addition to dispensing prescriptions.
“As the old Irish proverb states, ‘Health is wealth’. We want to help and care for the healthy you and believe the products we stock reflect this.
“We provide a personal, professional dispensing service for medical card, long-term illness, DPS and private patients.
“In addition, we stock a range of complementary medicines, photographic equipment, perfumes and cosmetics.
“The best thing we dispense is advice. Our online store offers our customers an alternative route to find what they need.”