I was interested to learn that Brown Thomas used to be four totally different stores before it became Brown Thomas! I had often heard BT in Limerick referred to as Tods and often wondered why. So I became curious to learn more about it. I am a complete nerd about history and love looking at old photos so I decided to combine my love of history with fashion and bring a new section to the blog where we look at fashion in Ireland's history - starting with Brown Thomas.
As I mentioned, BT was originally Tods, which was a department store on O Connell Street. My research hasn't turned up much about the original Tods other then a fire which pretty much destroyed the building in August 1959. The fire was reported at 11 and swept through the building before ruining surrouding buildings. According to the Limerick Leader from 1959, the fire was started by faulty wiring and it took three hours to destroy the building. During this time apparently employees tried to salvage as many goods as possible. It looked like at one point the fire would cross over to William Street and begin to take out businesses there too. It also caused bicycles and hoses to catch fire!!!! Sadly the Leader also reports that employees (it does state -rather unfairly - that it was mostly women) wept at the sight of the store on fire as they were worried about their jobs.The rubble from the fire was taken out to Corbelly, to the Mill Road and apparently the locals could see the pillars sticking out of the ground for years later. You can read an account of the fire here : Tods fire
So thats the history of Brown Thomas Limerick, as far as I can research. I'm going to do Cork, Galway and Dublin too!
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