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HISTORY
The history of the Irish Retail Newsagents Association, renamed the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association (CSNA) in May 2006, can be traced back to 1926, when a group of Dublin newsagents and booksellers formed the Irish Retail Newsagents, Booksellers and Stationers Association. The association applied for registration with the Registrar of Friendly Societies, as was the tradition of the day.
In the 1950’s the Dublin and Provincial Retail Tobacconists’ Association amalgamated with the Irish Retail Newsagents, Booksellers and Stationers. This partnership continued until 1972, when “all the assets of the association were transferred to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents”, a London-based organisation representing newsagents in the UK and Ireland. IRNA became the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, Republic of Ireland district.
This proved to be an unsatisfactory alliance. There were significant differences in the nature of the newsagency trade between England and Ireland. Because Ireland operated within the boundaries of a separate and sovereign state, this should have been reflected in the legal standing of a representative body.
The legal status of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents in Ireland was suspect. It had no formal legal standing.
The indifferent performance and ponderous administration systems directed from Federation offices in London was unacceptable to the Irish newsagents. The disaffected Irish elected Executive wished to implement a timetable for the disaffiliation of the Republic of Ireland district from the NFRN in the UK.
However, London was not pleased and on May 10th, 1988 the elected Irish Executive were dismissed from office and replaced by an un-elected executive chosen by them.
On the 18th May 1988, the dismissed Irish officials met in the Ormond Hotel and made a decision to form an Irish newsagents association. The Irish Retail Newsagents was born. On Monday 23rd of May 1988, business commenced in a room over Pat and Kay Shevlin’s shop in Churchtown, County Dublin.
Since it’s formation in 1988, the Irish Retail Newsagents Association had improved the circumstances of our members in many areas, negotiated on their behalf, kept a watchful eye on developments of interest to the sector and provided invaluable advice on many issues to it’s members.
In the last nineteen years, Irish business has been revolutionised. Many of our members have developed their businesses beyond recognition and do not regard newspapers and magazines as their primary source of income. Many stores have extended the business as convenience stores, the forecourt sector, while others are in the mini-supermarket category. In order to reflect better the businesses of all our members, the National Executive has implemented one of our key objectives, the re-branding of the Association.
On May 30th, 2006, at our National Annual General Meeting, we unveiled both our new name and our new logo/tag line. We want this new body to be everything the Association has been, but more. We feel there is a need, particularly when recruiting new members, to identify, through our new name, with their business needs. We know we have expertise in many areas outside News and Magazines, as our name still indicates.
Despite the change in logo and tag-line, the core values of the Association stay the same, that is, a commitment to our members to support and represent them.
The democratic structure of the Association ensures that it is run by storeowners for the benefit of storeowners.
Our Association is 100% Irish based and our membership increased by over 450 since last year with a current membership representing over 1,500 shops, making it the largest independent grouping of retailers in the convenience sector in the country.
