It is interesting to recall the number and the variety of trades and crafts in Skerries in my early days. There were two blacksmiths, one harness-maker, one shipwright, one sailmaker, four stonecutters, three thatchers, four stone-masons, four or five carpenters, one journeyman clockmaker, one fish buyer, four self employed small boat fishermen, twenty-four farmers and smallholders. Eighteen of these also kept cows and sold milk.
There were four builders and contractors, one chemist, one hotel, one guest house, four butchers, fifteen public houses (of which only one is still owned by the same family), two bankers, one corn-mill, two quarries, five shoemakers, two tailors and five drapers.
There was only one doctor and no dentist until the 1920s. There was one seed merchant and agricultural supplier, three coal merchants, two of whom also sold salt and one tar, two green grocers and poulterers, two hardware merchants, one pig dealer, one bank and one cycle agent.
Christy Fox (SHS, 1973)
