(Reprinted from the August 2004 issue of ‘NewsFour’) - Maggie Neary talking with the late Jim Drive

I stood in Cecil’s Barbers Shop on Thorncastle Street in Ringsend with the feeling of being in a heritage museum. Jim Driver, the proprietor and barber, pictured right, proudly pointed to the chairs saying, “those chairs are about 43 years old, hydraulic and still going strong.

I have been standing 55 years at this middle chair. I’ve always worked the middle chair. Originally, there were only two chairs, the third one is like a spare and they all match up. Yes, I am 55 years seeing people coming and going.”

Jim guides my attention around the shop, which is one of the oldest barbers in Dublin. It is akin to a short, nostalgic but pertinent history of a family’s trade and connection with the local community.

A collage mounted on one wall is a dedication to Jim’s brother, who died in the Vietnam War in 1969. Jim once removed this collage but rehung it on the request of his customers who see it as part of the ‘establishment’.

A sepia coloured black and white photo of two young boys catches my eye, “Yes,” Jim says, “that was taken way back, they were two local boys and one still comes to have his hair done here.”

Certificates adorn the walls, proof of Jim’s continuing interest in updating and retraining himself on his customers’ behalf. “I try not to change much about the décor of the shop and do only gradual improvements so people are not put off.

“I did my first shave at eleven years of age, it was on my father and I had to stand on my schoolbag. I was not much of a scholar, so at fourteen I was taken out of school and started to serve my time with my father right here in this shop, which he had opened in 1939.

I also attended Capel Street Tech for two years, doing gents hairstyling. In the 70s I took fourth place in the All-Ireland Hairdressing Championships in Belfast. I have attended courses in England also, even having two hours one-to-one with the great Vidal Sassoon.

Jim digresses and with a great show of emotion says, “you know, I’d like to say that it was through the Ringsend Dockers that I learned my trade. What I mean is that mostly when people go into a barbers they really don’t want the junior working on them, but the Dockers had faith in me when I was a junior, they’d say ‘come on jemmie’ and so I was able to build up my experience.

“Ringsend was basically a working class area but now it has switched to being semi residential. A lot of the factories and the boatyards and small engineering works have all departed. We get people from all over, north south, east and west.

People home visiting from America and Canada come into Jim’s, and they want to know the news. “I’m lucky enough I have a good memory and indeed this is the kind of thing that keeps me going, I have seen people who are very good hairdressers but they did not like that social aspect of it. It’s one thing cutting a person’s hair, it’s another thing to get them back.

“You have to build up a relationship with the clients. I could bash haircuts out in three or four minutes but that’s no good. We keep moving with the times as well as catering for all ages. The client comes in, you listen to them, they tell you what they want and you do it.

“I had one young lad came into me lately, maybe thirteen. He got out the comb and parted his hair in the middle and says to me ‘I want you to take all that side off and just leave the other side there’, and I said to him ‘What?’ ‘Just take all that off,’ he repeated. So I went straight at it and took all the one side off with the clippers and marvellous, out he goes, happy as Larry”.

Jim laughs saying, “It can be very enjoyable. Our clientele come from all walks of life but clients value privacy and I respect that. The age group of the clients ranges from 9 months to ninety and we do our best for them all.”

I asked what he does in his time off. “I still play golf though I’m getting a bit stiff. I have one great secret. I love to get up and listen to the seven or eight o’clock news and to what they say in the papers. That sets me up for the day with things to talk about.

“So I’m still going strong. At the moment I don’t have any intentions of retiring, I don’t think I’d like to retire anyway. I do take things a bit easier but I’m always here because people coming in often ask for me, and I see myself being here for a long time to come.”

So if you need a haircut in a nostalgic setting, Jim is waiting for you with just the right mixture of professionalism and chat that helps make a body feel on top of the world.