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End of an era
Iconic Capel Street shop to shut its doors after almost 60 years
Dublin’s Brenfer Bullseye was established in 1969 by Fergus O’Brien and his friend and business partner Brendan Whelan.
AFTER CLOSE TO 60 years in business, Brenfer Bullseye on Dublin’s Capel Street will close its doors at the end of the month.
Its owner Fergus O’Brien established the shop in 1969 with his former business partner. Now, at the age of 80, he says he’s ready for a change.
Brenfer’s is nestled on Capel Street, a northside thoroughfare that was pedestrianised in 2022. While it’s in the city centre, the street is slightly off the beaten track, with small independent businesses taking up space in most of the premises.
Brenfer’s previously specialised in jewellery, and repaired jewellery and watches, but “everything just evolved” and eventually it left this part of the business behind, O’Brien explains. The shop went on to become the purveyor of darts, snooker and trophies, which it has been selling for around 30 years.
O’Brien’s son is former professional snooker player Fergal O’Brien, while his daughter is a florist for the five-star Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green. Fergal retired in 2024 after a career spanning more than 30 years and now coaches. There are pictures of him tacked around the shop.
Brenfer’s owner is happy enough to allow his shop close up, explaining that his children are in successful careers and aren’t in a position to take over.
He’s looking forward to spending more time with his wife Joan, as well as continuing to pursue his hobbies: cycling, gardening, walking, holidaying.
But it’s been a long run. He owns the building his business operates out of and easily could have shuttered the doors sooner. “When I was 60, I’d say 65. When I was 65, I said I’d see when I’m 70. When I was 70, I said 75 – and when I was 75 I said I’d keep it under review.”
He decided about a year ago that it was time he concluded this review and he is now conducting a sale to clear his remaining stock before closure.
The shop has seen Dublin, and Capel Street, change drastically over the years. Jewellery choices have come in and out of fashion, other businesses have begun and shut down.
O’Brien says in his near-60 years at Brenfer’s, he has seen between 80 and 90% of the street’s businesses vanish. Now, Brenfer’s will be one of them – but although he is sure locking the doors for the final time will be “very difficult”, it’s the right time.
“That’s why I’m quitting: while I’m still young,” he says.
Brenfer’s came about in 1969 from O’Brien and his friend and business partner Brendan Whelan. It got its name from the two amalgamating the first syllable of their Christian names.
“More people get the name wrong than anything,” O’Brien tells The Journal in the shop in the late morning. “Breffany, Brennifer…”
In 1986, Whelan departed Ireland with his family for bright-skied Australia, leaving O’Brien manning the fort for the next 40 years. Members of the Whelan family still stop in to visit the shop while passing through Ireland back to Australia.
A few months ago, one of Whelan’s granddaughters stopped by Brenfer’s while stopping in Ireland on the way back from a trip to the US and told O’Brien that her grandfather started the shop.
“I said ‘I know he did, along with me’,” O’Brien laughs.
“She was quite emotional. She was coming back to something, because she would’ve heard the stories from her grandad.”
Although the shop is as much a hobby for O’Brien as it is a livelihood, at the age of 80 he’s ready for a change.
“My wife doesn’t allow me to use the word retirement, she said it’s just a change,” he says over boxed dart boards in the shop, which he runs solo.
O’Brien and his wife Joan married in 1968 when he was 21.
“None of this would’ve been successful without my wife,” he says of the shop.
The snooker direction of the shop makes sense given his son’s success, but O’Brien never played darts – “couldn’t hit the board” – although he noted he “wouldn’t need to be an alcoholic to sell a drink”.
As we speak in the Capel Street premises, a regular enters looking for darts grip wax.
“I’ll grab two of them off you please,” the customer says.
O’Brien replies: “A wise man. You won’t be able to get them after September!”
I ask the customer if he came to Brenfer’s often.
“For a few bits, yeah,” he says. “It’s handy because everything else is usually online. There’s nowhere that sells darts stuff around, believe it or not.” He libels a few locations in the vicinity. Will he miss Brenfer’s when it’s gone? “Yeah, 100%,” he says, and exits with his grip wax.
As the door shuts behind him, O’Brien notes: “He got something that he wasn’t going to get any place outside. We have people that come from all over the country to us. There’s no other shop like this in the country.”
I say it’ll be a big loss.
O’Brien laughs, “yeah, so people say”.
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