McDaids Clothing Returns to ‘Top of the line’ in Buncrana

Buncrana’s Main Street has welcomed back a familiar name and face in recent months, as McDaids Clothing opened its doors, marking the emotional return of a family business with almost 40 years of history behind it.

For Seamus McDaid, reopening a clothing shop in the town isn’t just a new venture. It’s a homecoming. Seamus grew up surrounded by clothing rails, stock boxes, and customers. 

His father, Charlie McDaid, first began selling clothes from the family home in Cockhill Park. The house, Seamus recalls, “was full of clothing.”

From there, the business evolved into Topline, which opened its Buncrana premises in the early 1980s and soon became a local institution. Charlie’s reputation travelled well beyond Donegal, and for Seamus and his sisters, the shop was part of daily life.

“Topline was nearly 40 years in business,” Seamus said. “I grew up with it. I was involved in the clothing business all my life.”

December 22nd, 2022, remains one of the hardest days Seamus has ever faced. The decision had been made to close Topline after decades of trading. When the final day arrived, circumstances meant Seamus was the only family member present.

“I was the only one there on the day, and I closed Topline that night,” he said. “It was a tough day. I took it worse than I expected when I turned the key. It was just a couple of days before Christmas. I can’t even remember that Christmas.”

The weeks that followed were equally difficult. “You wake up on New Year’s Day unemployed,” he said. “You always hear about people being made redundant, but it hits you hard.”

“I didn't want to talk to anybody. I'd actually go out in the morning just to avoid people, and I avoided Buncrana Main Street. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. I couldn’t even walk past Topline. It was seven or eight months before I could even go in again.”

Just weeks before the shop’s closure, Seamus had taken his driving bus licence test. By August, he landed a job with McGonagle Buses, beginning a completely new chapter from pressing clothes to pressing the brakes: “was my new venture.”

The work took him from school runs to service routes to tours across Ireland.

“I loved that part of the world along the Wild Atlantic Way,” he said. “I had a whole new way of looking at things, where I began listening to podcasts, especially one by Laura Bonner. Something she said just clicked with me. She said Sure, do it and I felt like she was talking to me. I said, right, I'm going to do this and open my own shop by 2026.”

The spark to return to retail began with a simple request, as Crana College asked if he could source a particular school skirt that Topline used to supply. Seamus contacted the company, sourced the stock, and set up a small room in Crana College to sell uniforms.

“By the following year, I had a website set up,” he said. He was, without even realising it, recreating the early days of his father’s business, selling from home and growing slowly.

In July of this year, a premises became available on Buncrana Main Street. Inspired by Bonner’s words—“sure do it,” Seamus opened up McDaids' clothing beside the Corner Deli on the Main Street.

With the support of his wife Elizabeth, who now works alongside him, McDaids Clothing opened its doors, offering menswear, schoolwear, and a standout selection of sportswear.

It has become a darts destination across  Donegal for bullseye fans as one of Seamus’s biggest coups has been securing top-tier darts brands. McDaids is the only Red Dragon stockist in Donegal and the only retailer in Donegal for Target Darts, which is Luke Littler’s management company, and sponsor

Seamus is also proud to bring back classic menswear labels once synonymous with Topline, including Douglas and Grahame, alongside modern additions like Tom Penn.

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Fittingly, the new shop sits just across from Ferris’s Lane near the very spot where his father first opened Topline decades ago, before it cemented its place on the Lower Main Street, a place now taken by Carraig Donn. “I’m delighted to be back on the main street again,” Seamus said. What began as a painful ending has turned into a meaningful new beginning.

For Buncrana, McDaids Clothing isn’t just a new shop. It’s the return of a cherished family tradition revived, renewed, and back at the top of the line.