For 108 years, Walsh's jewellers has been on Oliver Plunkett Street in Mullingar.
"It all started in 1917 when my grandparents bought this jewellery business, and in the last 108 years, four generations of the family have been operating the business," explained Des Walsh.
"It's been a wonderful experience right throughout the years. In the very beginning the shop not only sold jewellery, it also sold cameras and musical instruments and records."
Mr Walsh recalled renowned singer and entertainer Joe Dolan, who he went to school with, coming into the shop to autograph records over the years and they always "went like hot cakes".
However, Des Walsh said that over the years retail trade has changed in Ireland and jewellers in particular have struggled.
"It has changed so much over the years. If you look at the situation where gold was concerned, the price of gold went through the roof.
"In fact, that's one of the problems at the moment, It's gone through the roof and that has resulted in a lot of jewellers across the country closing because it's no longer competitive."
Changing shopping habits
Mr Walsh said the Covid pandemic also impacted retail trade and has resulted in lasting changes in how people shop.
"Obviously our sales went right down because we closed, and people went shopping online," explained Mr Walsh.
"There's no doubt that it had a major influence on shopping throughout the whole town, to be honest," he said.
"We tried at the time to go online to sell stuff, and, well, it wasn't a success," he said.
He said once the pandemic ended, shopping habits had changed and online shopping had really taken over.
"With the younger generation, they never came back," he said.
Town centres 'will die' without footfall
Mr Walsh believes efforts have to be made to re-populate town centres if they are to survive into the future.
"When I was growing up here, everybody lived over the premises. The bank managers lived over the banks, the shopkeepers lived over the shop but now so many of them that are just vacant and there's no one living overhead.
"I'm here on Oliver Plunkett Street right bang smack in the middle of the town and you can't buy a newspaper, a pint of milk, a bar of chocolate, nothing of that nature.
"There was a time when we had five grocery shops here on the street and we had three newsagents," he added.
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The businessman is concerned that the focus is moving away from town centres to the detriment of their survival.
"On every main road in Mullingar, there's a supermarket on the edge of town so people from that area go shopping and then go home and they're not coming into town," he said.
He also said that while 'enhancement' makes towns look more attractive, it can in some instances restrict access and reduce parking, resulting in less footfall and little passing trade.
"Unless you have people moving around the towns day and night, then the town centres will die," he said.
Meanwhile, President of Mullingar Chamber of Commerce James Bourke said people have to support local business.
"I think consumers have to make a conscious decision to get into their town centres and support your local family-owned businesses," he said.
"A number of local businesses have moved online, and they're using a 'bricks and clicks' approach and I suppose the consciousness is there on the consumer to get in and support your local business," he added.
He said a number of towns, including Mullingar, have a local voucher scheme which encourages people to shop and support local.
"We've run the voucher scheme here for about 12 years now in Mullingar, and we sold over half a million worth of vouchers last year so it's a really good success story."
"There is a shop local theory that says for every one euro spent locally it's worth four euros to the local economy so schemes like this are really, really important," he added.
'Emotional day' for Des and Geraldine Walsh
Yesterday afternoon, the Walsh family closed the doors on the jewellers for the last time and Mr Walsh's wife Geraldine, who has been the face of the jewellers for many years, said it has been an emotional time.
"I'm going to miss all the families who came in through the years, celebrating special times. Like grandparents after a grandchild is born coming in here thrilled to bits about new babies and choosing a bangle and engraving it."
The family said they tried to the sell the business but were unable to find a buyer.
"There'll be a certain element of guilt on my part, because I'm the one closing it, and I feel bad about that, but there's no one to take it over. I've tried persuading my family, but they won't do it," said Geraldine Walsh.
"We can't go on forever and the way business is at the moment, we certainly wouldn't recommend it all," said Des Walsh.
Despite the challenges the family said they have many great memories and have made many great friends.
"We've done our best over the years, all our family have the whole way back and it was an honour to do so," he said.
