The Cope, or the Templecrone Agricultural Co-operative Society is a

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

chain indigenous to

The Rosses The Rosses (officially known by its Irish language name, ''Na Rosa''; in the genitive case ''Na Rosann'') is a traditional 'district' in the west of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. The Rosses has ...

area of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Founded in 1906, it has a number of normal supermarkets as well as a full department store, a builders merchants and an agricultural division. The name comes from the inability of one of the founder shareholders to say ''Co-Op'' - as he could pronounce Cope, the name The Cope was adopted. For the same reason, some people use the term to refer to the group in the U.K. named

The Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

. Outside of Donegal, the name is perhaps best known for being the semi-official nickname of a local politician

Pat "the Cope" Gallagher Patrick Gallagher (; born 10 March 1948) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency since the 2024 general election, and previously from 1981 to 1997, 2002 to 2009, 2016 to 2020. He serv ...

, who is a former

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

. His family were connected to the foundation of the co-operative. The founder of the chain, Patrick Gallagher (grandfather of the above, and known as Paddy "the Cope"), featured on a 48c Irish stamp released on 16 January 2006, depicted in front of the group's first

Dungloe ''An Clochán Liath'', known in English as Dungloe (sometimes misspelled as Dunglow; ), is a town on the west coast of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. It is the main town in The Rosses and the largest in the Donegal ...

store. The supermarket section of its flagship Dungloe department store was destroyed in a fire in April 2006, although a reduced supermarket service was resumed within two weeks from elsewhere on the site. Construction of a new supermarket began in January 2007 and has since been completed. Initially co-branded as a Vivo store, and latterly a Eurospar, it has since returned to only Cope branding. The Cope has branches in the town of

, as well as

Annagry ''Anagaire'' (anglicised as Annagry) is a village in The Rosses district in County Donegal, Ireland. , the population was 309. Name The Irish and official name for Annagry is , which in turn derives from meaning "ford of the cauldrons". Langu ...

Falcarragh ''An Fál Carrach'' (anglicised as Falcarragh), sometimes called ('the Crossroads'), is a small ''Gaeltacht'' town and townland in the north-west of County Donegal, Ireland. The settlement is in the district and old parish of Cloughaneely. Ir ...

and Kincasslagh villages. They formerly had branches in Burtonport and Narin, but they have been closed; with the former branch in

Lettermacaward Leitir Mhic an Bhaird or Leitir Mhic a' Bhaird (anglicised as Lettermacaward) is a Gaeltacht village in the Rosses region of County Donegal, Ireland. The village, known colloquially as ''Leitir'' (pronounced ''letcher''), is between the larger ...

now operated privately. The Narin branch was re-opened on its original site for Summer 2019 only. The Dungloe store is a full service

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

, with the Falcarragh branch also carrying some homewares and hardware in addition to the food business. The Dungloe and Kincasslagh stores host the

An Post (; literally 'The Post') is the state-owned provider of Mail, postal services in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. An Post provides a "universal postal service" to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union. Services provide ...

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

for their communities, while the separate Dungloe hardware/agricultural store carries Topline Hardware franchise branding.

References

External links

The Cope official website
RTÉ.ie Cooperatives in Ireland Cooperatives in the Republic of Ireland Retail companies established in 1906 The Rosses Supermarkets of the Republic of Ireland Supermarkets of Ireland 1906 establishments in Ireland {{supermarket-stub