People regularly calling to the house for prescriptions and in one case, for lipstick late at night, are among the memories of the recently elected president of Laois Chamber Alliance, James McElwee.
“In a service industry that’s what we were accustomed to. It was always busy and dad used to work seven days a week.
“We would help out where we could and would regularly be in the shop although I deflected to horseriding on days off as much as I could,” he laughed.
“My father James hails from Donegal and my mother Mary who passed away in November of last year, was from Westmeath.
“They set up the business in around 1974 in Mountmellick and my brother Peter took over the business in around the mid-2000s.
“My father still continues to work in the shop in O’Connell Square, Mountmellick, and Peter has grown the business to include another pharmacy in Mountmellick and a pharmacy in Portlaoise beside the Cedar Clinic.”
James who is in his forties and originally from Mountmellick/Rosenallis, went to primary school in Mountmellick and secondary school in Clongowes Wood College near Clane.
He later went to UCD and studied commerce and Italian and then moved into law after studying legal studies in Dublin Institute of Technology, now Technological University (TU) Dublin.
“I was initially going to do veterinary, then pharmacy. Following numerous conversations with my flatmate in college, I developed an interest in law and decided to take on the course in legal studies and grew to like it.
“Following on from this I got my FE1 examinations in order to get a traineeship which I did with O’Donnell Sweeney solicitors in Dublin where I spent over four years,” he said.
“Following on from this I worked with the firm called Cathal N. Young O’Reilly Solicitors for another four years before setting up in practice in Mountmellick beside my family’s pharmacy business.
“I worked on developing my practice while also doing some work for the pharmacy initially.
“However, the legal business thankfully grew year-on-year and I merged with Eugene O’Connor of Rollestons in 2019 to become Rolleston McElwee Solicitors LLP.
“Notwithstanding challenges with Covid, leaks in the office and other challenges throughout the Covid years, the business has blossomed and continues to grow.
“We are a general practice law firm that deals in civil matters from property, probate, litigation, commercial, wills, liquor licensing, landlord and tenant, personal injuries, family and generally anything civil but not criminal.
“As a proud Laois man, I was always eager to set up in business back in my home county and I see much potential in Laois.
“Outsiders have often viewed it as a county that you just travel through whereas I see it as the centre of the country accessible to all areas with much potential for development both on a business and tourism front.
“Both elements come hand-in-hand as tourism is a business. Furthermore, much more investment is needed in Laois and the county needs another voice to go after that business.
“We have over 12,000 people that commute to Dublin on a daily basis for jobs in Dublin together with remote workers with Dublin jobs and I see no reason why we can’t attract businesses and in turn people local to the area to come back and work in the county,” James said.
“Laois offers a fabulous quality of life and can offer more where money is coming back into the county through industrial and commercial development which in turn will lead to greater employment, tourism, retail opportunities and entrepreneurialism,” he contended.
“We’re looking to achieve economies of scale between tourism and business which in a way, go hand in hand. It has been pointed out to us that investment is not just reliant on being in a good locality, which Laois is.
“There are many other factors which Laois boasts from a good broadband system to housing opportunities, tourism opportunities, a quality of life for families to come live and work here, brainpower which can be attracted back from Dublin and surrounding counties, education from institutions around locality and much more.
“By working with Laois Tourism as Laois Chamber Alliance we are exploring all avenues to make Laois an attractive prospect for businesses and their associated employees and their families alike.”
The flagged establishment of an Ikea outlet in Portlaoise didn’t happen – what are his thoughts on that?
“I’m not sure if I have many views on it as it may have come down to Ikea’s performance in other outlets. In any case it was an outlet and given Laois’s location we could be looking at trying to get the Ikea’s of this world to set up their main premises being a major junction/halfway point between Dublin and Cork/Limerick. That’s what we should be aiming for.
“At the same time, given the value in land and premises in Laois, there is a glorious opportunity for larger businesses to set up subsidiaries in Laois.
“The IDA announced over a year ago that they have purchased 44 acres for development in attracting businesses to the locality and it is my hope that they will progress quickly in setting up the infrastructure and marketing the site and perhaps even constructing hubs for start-up businesses to establish themselves,” James said.
“We worked hard on getting the strategy together with Laois Tourism which I believe is working successfully.
“In one vein, we have been working through the Chamber and Invest in Laois and exploring opportunities for investors and businesses alike to come to Laois.
“On the other side, we have been working on tourism opportunities within the county and overall developing Laois’s profile for businesses, locals and tourists alike.
“There have been a number of positives over the past year; collaborating with Laois Tourism, Laois County Council, Shine, networking events, lobbying councillors and meeting with the IDA, the then Tánaiste, Leo Varadker and more recently Simon Coveney about the future of Laois, what they are willing to do for us and what we need to do to further our cause.
“We have a number of ideas for the year ahead and we will be fleshing these out in upcoming meetings,” said James who trains juveniles in O’Dempsey’s football and Portarlington rugby.
He has continued with horseriding and other pursuits during his downtime include golf (“rarely”), the gym, listening to music and “if the knees allow, I play football myself. Otherwise, family time,” he said.
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