End of an era.
Hello all,
Today my friend John Twamley closed his T.V. repair shop for the last time. He had been on the main street of Swords since 1972 and in the current shop since 1974.
He has had a long career in radio and electronics having started out as a radio officer with Marconi in the 50's, he travelled the world for 8 years. He meet his wife, an American, while at sea. After he married he moved to the States were after a few short stints in different places he got a job with R.C.A, there he served his time on television. He completed his apprenticeship in '68.
In 1971 they decided to move back to Ireland, he worked for Telerents then Cannon electrical for about a year. Himself and a colleague decided they would go it alone, they rented a room over a shop in Swords. For the first six months trade was poor and the other man left as he was offered a job in Dublin airport working on radio.
John persevered and it payed off. He had at one time 750 tv's out on rent (He still had three rentals out today!)
I was raised by my grandmother and we lived a few doors down from the shop. Some of my earliest memories are of going into the shop with her to pay the rent for the salora tv we rented from him. It was not long till I wss popping in after school and on Saturdays. One of the first jobs I had was putting new leads on irons and swapping out lopts, loved soldering all those pins! I would have been around 7 or 8.
Little did I know that he would become such a dear friend and I am very grateful to him for all the help he has given me over the years.
He is looking forward to getting back into amateur radio, vintage radio and clock repair in between the golf. I may persuade him to restore a tv of his own, he has helped me with many. We're also looking forward to the NVCF, this will be our sixth.
At one time there were three tv repair shops in Swords, now there are none.
I hope I have done him justice with this post.
Thanks,
John Joe.
In the photo outside the shop his son Brendan, Himself and me on the right.
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