Author: Mark Keenan

Before I got into the shoe game I did my research — and in the late 1970s, the statistic that burned into my mind was that over 50pc of non-food retail, excluding cars, was done in Dublin city centre.If you wanted to be a serious player, that’s where you had to be.We launched our operation in the Dandelion Market in 1979. Business was buoyant. If anything, there was a lack of retail space. In 1980, we paid £35,000 for a lease on a very small shop on Capel Street.You could probably have bought four or five houses for that.Saturday used…