Newry

[laughs]

[laughs] Uh, on the border, uh, just with, with Newry.

So ri- right on the border with-

Claire levels of poor-mouthing goes on.

And then the IRA men left.

Nobody was harmed, right? So they then make it to Newry.

So they get to Newry.

Now, in the other car, they split.

So Tony Kelly, he says that they were struggling to fit.

How many hundreds of barges would have been constantly passing up and down the Lagan.

What a forest of masts would have bristled in the desolate port of Newry.

What vast warehouses and stately mansions would have covered the space occupied by the noisome alleys of Dundalk.

The country, he was heard to say, is worth fighting for.

Today's guest, Kevin McCullough, spent 17 years in retail before walking into the Cocoon warehouse in January 2019, and now seven years later, he's the eCommerce director with a seat on the board.

Cocoon, started by brother and sister Paul Villelli and Claire Walsh in Newry, um, began by selling their father's rugs on eBay, and today it's Ireland's largest rug retailer with a reported sales of £21 million last year and 8,000 rugs shipped a week.

On this episode, we're gonna talk about the journey through the Amazon trap, the WhatsApp trap, building a brand four years late, and the gifting hack that replaced a quarter of a million in influencer spend.

Also, what happens when a courier loses 1,000 of your rugs at Christmas? This is Functional and Fabulous.

What an intro.

[laughs] So Ke- Kevin, uh, rewind it for me a small bit.

17 years in retail and then you walk into a rug warehouse in Newry.

What was going on for you at the time?

Katie McGrath, as you said, Barry Ward.

We have a lovely actress from Newry who is...

I'm just forgetting her name now.

I've got her here.

Girlies, we're back on the sofa with not only a friend, but the most inspirational woman that I have come to know and become friendly with over the years.

This is Gemma Murphy, everybody, from Jack Murphy Gillard in Newry.

She's a mummy to two gorgeous girls, a wife, but also the most amazing businesswoman and genuinely the busiest woman I think I know.

And I know a lot of busy women.

no problem so it's like an interview talent we're on the sofa now let's go So Gemma Murphy, I am a director in Jack Murphy Jewelers.

So that is our family business.

So it's based in the heart of Newry.

So my parents established it.

So does this inquiry occur north of the border in the newly created, relatively newly created Northern Ireland or in the Free State?

No, this occurs, I think in Newry, it's not clear from the reporting at the time, but it's a coroner's court, so witnesses are called to testify as to what might have occurred, because they want to come to a conclusion about how did this man die.

Now, it all feels very rushed, and when you see some of the reporting that comes afterwards, you'll understand why people felt that way.

One of those who testifies is James's brother, Joe, that being Joe Senior, the father of Joe Kernan, who we know later as Lacrosse McGlen and Armagh legend.

Is he saying that Jimmy Smith kind of raised his knee to nail him as he's coming down? Yeah.

He says it's not an act of proper self-defense in the game to have your knee up like that.

Now this is all reported in the Newry Telegraph in the days afterwards.

Peter Kirk... an Armagh player gave similar evidence.