Emer Murray’s lemon meringue pie has legendary status in Galway, closely followed by her delicious, layered chocolate gateaux, and Victoria jam sponges . . . but after more than three decades in Goyas, a local institution, one of the city’s best bakers closed her business for good at lunchtime on New Year’s Eve.

Though Emer had no formal training – she learned how to bake at home with her mother on Dalysfort Road in Salthill – she created one of Galway’s most loved bakeries and cafes in the heart of the city centre since 1991.

But after 33 years delivering delicious sweet and savoury delights, Emer decided to shut-up shop for good.

“It has been absolutely wonderful. I love to bake and always did and please God I always will. But too many stars aligned,” she told the Connacht Tribune last Friday.

Those aligned stars included rising costs of doing business, including rent, and the loss of two key members of staff in the past six months who proved irreplaceable.

“Will I miss it? Oh, I will. I’m heartbroken. I’ve been crying for the last six weeks! My clients are saying to me ‘surely Emer you will open up somewhere else or do something on the side’. I’m not doing that. Opening somewhere else, the same problems will follow me. I don’t know what I’m going to do – I’ll walk the Prom,” she laughed.

Emer started baking in her parents’ kitchen on Dalysfort Road and sold her produce from the boot of her car at Saint Nicholas’ Saturday Market.

During her first Christmas, in the early nineties, she held a festive fair at the Ardilaun Hotel.

She sent out a load of hard copy invitations – no internet or social media in those days – and people ordered cakes, puddings and mince pies, which they collected from her Salthill home on Christmas week.

Then she began baking Danish pastries for John Sherry who had purchased Lydon House off Jimmy Lydon.

“That gathered more momentum, and it was getting a lot for me to manage on my own. As well as everything else, the health inspector was starting to ask questions, where the stuff was coming from. I knew I’d have to make a decision to put in an HSE-approved kitchen at home and continue the way I was, or look for premises in town,” she recalled.

Emer opted for the latter, and opened her first café/bakery on March 1, 1991, on Quay Street in a section of the building that is now home to Martine’s restaurant.

She stayed there for more than seven years, before moving to Kirwan’s Lane, where she opened Easter week 1998.

As well as the usual offerings of cakes, sandwiches, teas, and coffees, Goyas had a very successful homemade cakes’ business.

Emer baked all sorts of cakes for special occasions, from weddings to birthdays and everything in between, the technicalities of which she learned from a friend up North.

Emer believes the broader hospitality sector gets a negative press, including from Government, although she concedes that was partly self-inflicted due to working conditions in restaurants that included abuses such as long hours, and no double pay on Sundays.

And Covid-19, she said, was a ‘pivotal point’ for the hospitality sector, as existing staffing issues became worse with very decent workers retraining and leaving the industry.

Ahead of her final couple of days in Goyas, Emer admitted she was going to miss the hundreds of dear clients who frequently her coffee shop regularly.

“When I made this decision to close, and it became public, I was not expecting the reaction from so many people. I’ve been overawed and overwhelmed by it.

“Not just from my clients, I can understand them, but from complete strangers or people we’d only see an odd time, they were genuinely upset and disappointed and upset that I’m upset. It has been overwhelming. Even at Mass on Christmas Day in the Claddagh a woman came up top me to wish me well and say how she used to bring her grandchildren there when they visited.

“We had a huge number of regulars, people who were with me from the market. I will miss them and the company. I’ll miss not seeing them coming in. I’m on second generation with some. I made their christening cakes, and communion cakes, and their wedding cakes and now I’ve made christening cakes for their children. I’m going to miss not seeing those children grow up the way I saw their parents grow up,” added Emer.

Pictured: Work of art…Emer Murray with this wonderful creation.