Bernard Dunne (19 May 1908 – 14 April 1983) was an Irish businessman who was the founder and chairman of

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain also has operations in Spain, and formerly in England and Scotland. The fo ...

Early life

Ben Dunne was born as Bernard Dunn in the village of

Rostrevor Rostrevor () is a village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the foot of Slieve Martin on the coast of Carlingford Lough, near Warrenpoint. The Kilbroney River flows through the village and Rostrevor Forest is nearby. ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Ireland in 1908. He a was the eldest son of Margaret (née Byrne) and Barney Dunn, a businessman. Dunne's father inherited the Woodside Restaurant Temperance Refreshment Rooms and an auctioneering firm, and his mother ran a drapery business and later a shipping agency. Dunne attended St Mary's School, Rostrevor until he was 14 years old. While still in school he took on a number of jobs, including repairing bicycles, rearing sheep, and working as a boot-boy at the home of Sir John Foster George Ross of Bladensburg. He was convinced not to emigrate to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by a family friend, Edward Whitaker.

Career

Dunne moved to

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

in the newly established

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

in 1926. He was employed as an apprentice first in Anderson's of West Street, Drogheda and later in Cameron's Drapery store in

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

. It was after his move to Longford that he added an "e" to his surname. In the mid 1930s, he moved to

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, where he worked as a buyer for

Roches Stores Debenhams Ireland was a national chain of department stores in Ireland, that was owned ultimately by Debenhams plc. It was largely based on the former Roches Store chain, though after that business divested its grocery units. History Roches S ...

in the menswear department. In 1944, Dunne left Roches Stores to open a drapery shop with his friend, Des Darrer, across the road from Roches Stores on

St Patrick's Street St Patrick's Street ( ga, Sráid Naomh Pádraig) is the main shopping street of the city of Cork in the south of Ireland. The street was subject to redevelopment in 2004, and has since won two awards as Ireland's best shopping street. St Patrick ...

. Dunne and Darrer would remain in partnership until 1952, when it was dissolved and Darrer took ownership of the Waterford Dunnes Stores, renaming it

Darrers Darrers Stores was a department store and supermarket brand with outlets in Waterford, Dungarvan, Tramore and Carlow, in Ireland. The chain operated as both a grocers and drapers, and is believed to be one of the first Irish stores to introduce a ...

. Dunnes opened a second branch of his new

on North Main Street, Cork, which were followed by stores in

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

and Mallow. The tenth store, in

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

, opened in 1955, and the first store in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

opened in 1958. In 1960, Dunne launched the store's first own-brand product, a ladies jacket under the label St Bernard. By 1964, Dunnes Stores had expanded into grocery and had an annual turnover of £6 million. Dunne purchased two other Dublin stores, Bolger's and Cassidy's, in 1972 which had 11 shops across Dublin combined. Dunnes Stores opened its first branch in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in 1976.

Personal life and death

Dunne met his wife, Nora Maloney, while working at

. They were married in September 1939 and had six children, including

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

, Frank, Elizabeth, Therese, and

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

. Ben and later Margaret went on to work in the family business. Dunne died on 14 April 1983.

References

External links

Dunnes Stores website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunne, Ben 1908 births 1983 deaths People from Rostrevor 20th-century Irish businesspeople Businesspeople from County Down Irish businesspeople in retailing