A Dublin barber has celebrated a major birthday milestone this week and vows that he will continue to cut hair.
Eddie McEvoy turned 89-years-old on Thursday, and he is one of Ireland's oldest barbers. Eddie has worked at the family-run business The Grafton Barber's flagship store at 51 Grafton Street for many years, and he's loved every minute of it.
On Joe Duffy's Liveline, Eddie was delighted to be wished a very special happyy birthday by actor James Nesbitt, Irish football legend Paul McGrath, and hotelier John Fitzpatrick. Speaking to Dublin Live, one of the owners of The Grafton Barber Hugh McAllister described Eddied as a "lovely man".
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Eddie told Dublin Live that he was delighted to have a received a lovely birthday cake from the staff at The Grafton Barber this week. He said: "I was 89-years-old on Thursday, it was lovely the staff brought out a big cake and sang 'Happy Birthday.'"
Eddie was born at Hollis Street and is originally from Donnybrook, where he lived until the age of six until his mother died. After his mother died, Eddie and his two brothers spent time at two orphanages in Dublin the first at St Teresa's in Blackrock then St Savior's on Dominic's Street.
Eddie's father was in the army, and his dad got remarried to a Tipperaray woman where the family lived for several years before returning to Dublin. Eddie's grandfather and uncles also ran a dentist's lab in Dublin, and Eddie got into barbering after being offered an apprenticeship as a teenager.
He explained: "I was going to do my Leaving Cert I don't know what happened to me I just left school for some reason, so my brother's godfather has a wholesale business in Molesworth Lane off Molesworth Street in hairdressing supplies.
"He said there's a job going as an apprentice barber in Phibsborough they said would you like to be a barber and here I am." In the 1950s, Eddie had his own barbershop in Finglas for several years, before he went to England.
Eddie returned to Ireland in 1962 and started a job in the Green Dolphin on Grafton Street in 1964. Eddie met the current owners of the family-run business, Hugh and Conor McAllister, and they bought their first store off him around 1995.
Eddie said: "They're lovely people, they're very nice. I do enjoy it [barbering], if you're not enjoying something you shouldn't be doing it.
"I love it, you meet different people from all walks of life. I've no plans to retire, as long as God keeps me well and healthy I'll keep doing it."
Eddie has one son who has a disability and attends respite care in Dublin. When asked if he has any tips on hair styles, Eddie noted that hairstyles have changed a lot over the years.
He said: "Styles have changed a a lot, back in my day it was short back and sides. It was all by appointment, no walk-ins."
When asked who his most famous customers have been over the years, Eddie has cut the hair of some of the most well-known men in showbiz. "I had Gay Byrne as a customer for 25 years, Paddy Reilly the singer, loads of different people."
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