Fifty years of entrepeneurial spirit in the heart of Tuam

ONE of Tuam’s most prominent businessmen has also been one of the town’s most private citizens over the past 50 years as he built up a supermarket and property empire in the heart of the town.
Joe O’Toole turns 85 later this month and his association with Tuam precedes the opening of his first supermarket on Bishop Street in 1967, when he spent three years as a student of St Jarlath’s College.
The Claran native arrived in Tuam in 1946 as a college boarder but illness prevented him from completing his studies and by 1948 he had returned home to Headford. As the eldest son, and second eldest of seven children, it was a natural step for him to join the family business.
“We had a travelling shop and that was where I learned my trade,” he explains.

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