The McCarthy family are hopeful that can buy back the John McCarthy Motors site in Fermoy when it goes under the hammer on Tuesday next at the Allsop’s auction in Dublin.

“Our family business, which opened in May 1961, was closed down in July 2011 – a really traumatic time for all of us,” Wayne McCarthy told The Avondhu this week. We have gone through turbulent times in the last 3 years and we ourselves have been unemployed ever since.”

Explaining that the family owned 1.9 acres of the 2.9 acrea site with the bank owning the rest, Wayne said: “We are endeavouring to buy the company back from the receiver and get back in business over the next few months.

“I myself left school to work in the business in 1990 and we certainly don’t want to see it go from the family. My mam and dad lived in a caravan on that site in the early 1960’s; my brother Noel was born there, so it goes without saying that the family has a huge attachment to it.”

He stressed that the family has been ‘overwhelmed’ with the huge amount of support they have received locally and thanked the people for their support.