The cinema was the Ormonde in Greystones, Co Wicklow, a venue that was built in 1947.

“There was nothing else out there – the pub, the cinema, a rugby club disco. That was it,” recalls Mr Spurling (63) of the late ’70s  in the town, a microcosm for the rest of the country.

“We got into the cinemas in the late ’70s by fluke,” he says.

His father took over the Ormonde when the advent of multiplexes in Ireland was still more than a decade away. Small cinemas had dotted the country and even in the capital, a visit to the silver screen typically involved a trek into the city from the suburbs.

Mr Spurling’s father, Osborne, converted the ground floor of the Ormonde into a hardware shop and operated a smaller, more economical screen on the upper floor.

The family business would eventually flourish. Before the pandemic, two of its cinema complexes – Movies@Dundrum in south Dublin and Movies@Swords to the north of the capital – were among the busiest screens in the country. The family also operates cinemas in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and Gorey, Co Wexford.

But overnight, the world changed.

“With the first lockdown, we had no idea how long it would be for,” he says. “I’m a great believer in life that if worrying about it will help you solve the problem, then worry your head off. But me worrying wasn’t going to get my cinemas open any quicker.

“As we approached the potential of reopening, we were aware there was going to be f*** all to show in cinemas, so I started putting together a programme of back catalogue stuff,” he says.

“When we were given a June date to reopen, I was ready to go.”

While re-runs helped to scratch an itch for people who wanted to get back out and about, it would only ever go so far.

Accounts for the Movies@Dundrum complex show that in the 12 months to the end of August last year, the venue saw its turnover tumble 40pc to €4.8m. It made a €519,000 loss compared to an €83,000 profit the year before. The cinema firm’s banker is AIB.

The only comfort was that everyone was in the same boat. Dundrum Town Centre is owned by UK property investment group Hammerson and German insurer Allianz, while the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords is co-owned by Hammerson and Irish Life.

Mr Spurling won’t spill the beans on the precise nature of the leases the movie business has at both those venues, but admits negotiations as the Covid crisis continued were sometimes tense.

“Without elaborating too much, rates were negotiated that suited both parties,” he says. “There were lots of Mexican standoffs. We were ready to trade and they wanted us to trade. We‘ve boxed that one off now and moved on. But of course there was argy-bargy backwards and forwards. That’s what negotiations are.

“I think AIB, like lots of banks, they had a prime position they wanted to take and a fall-back position that they would accept,” he adds in relation to discussions with the bank during the pandemic. “We’re very happy with the arrangement we’ve come to with AIB for the structure of those loans at Swords. We’re still getting on well together.”

Mr Spurling – who loves being front of house and relishes the ‘Greatest Showman’ role – largely defers the number crunching to his sister and joint managing director Katinka Waterstone.

He’s the eldest of six siblings, and all five of his sisters are shareholders.

“The family thing has always been very important for us, in that it gives us a different viewpoint on how we see our businesses being run,” says Mr Spurling. “We started off in small towns where being part of the local community is really important. It’s always been part of our DNA.”

And what’s it like running the business in tandem with his sister?

“Like every business, it’s impossible to always be on the same page,” he concedes.

“But I’m quite happy the way the business is split,” he adds. “Katinka just loves our finances and our figures, spreadsheets, and is on top of that like a cheap suit. I’m all over the movie aspect of it. There’s always a little crossover, a Venn diagram, and we’ll come to a happy medium. Business is as complex as you want to make it. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

And he’s pretty sure that once the pandemic washes through, the cinema business can get back to normal.

So sure, in fact, that he’s signed up a lease for the former IMC multiplex at The Square shopping mall in Tallaght, Dublin.

The Irish Independent first revealed back in April that the Spurlings were poised to take on the 13-screen business, having failed to seal a deal a decade earlier to operate the venue.

Movies@ is spending millions of euros to revamp the multiplex, which was gutted before it was handed over to the company after IMC put the company it had behind the venue into receivership.

Mr Spurling says a number of other operators were  interested in taking on the multiplex.

“Fortunately, we were the ones who got it this time,” he says. “It’s going to be an absolutely fantastic facility. We’re stripping it back to the bare walls, upgrading the foyer, the corridors, the 13 screens and revamping them completely.”

The work  involves putting in laser projectors and new sound systems, new seats, and Mr  Spurling says it will be “totally unrecognisable” from its previous guise.

Upgrades at Dundrum and Swords will follow, based on the new formula at Tallaght.

And as with all family-owned businesses, there comes a stage when it’s naturally time for a new generation to take up the mantle, or even to think about selling up.

Mr  Spurling has eight children from two marriages. But whether or not there’s a successor in the ranks remains uncertain.

They are all ploughing their own furrows – one is finishing a master s in screenwriting, others are still in Leaving Certificate territory. One son, Jolyon, is the co-founder and chief data officer of Dublin-based Showtime Analytics, which is a leading global provider of analytics services to the cinema industry. There’s also a nanoscientist, an animator and a potential school teacher in the mix.

Jolyon recalled in an industry journal this year how one of his earliest cinema memories was of the cinema projection room at the family business and “dad teaching me to splice the films arriving by train on a Friday”.

But Graham Spurling isn’t sure what will eventually happen to the business.

“It’s a hard one to call,” he says . “My father wanted to leave a legacy of some description and both myself and Katinka would be mindful to leave a legacy for our children and for our fellow siblings, in whatever shape that may be.

“But the reality is, unless you’re working at the very top of the cinema business, the remuneration is not all that high .

 “My son running a data company is far better off where he is than where I am right now. I know my screenwriter son and my animator son would probably like to be involved in the cinema business, but maybe they realise they’re better off in movies than in cinemas.”

A slate of blockbuster releases in the  coming weeks, including a new Spider-Man flick and a Matrix movie, will help to put bums on seats – as long as there isn’t another lockdown, something Mr  Spurling  says would “crucify” the cinema trade.

But it’s something he knows he can do little about.

“If the Government comes out and says we’re going into lockdown, our battle plan is simply to close the door,” he says.  “We’re dealing with banks and landlords and we’re working on projections and the projections go out the window and we’re back to square one again. But we’ve done it before, we’ve shut down and we’ve reopened and we’ll do it again if we have to.” 

Despite everything, Mr  Spurling remains enthused about the cinema business and has no plans to wrap the shoot any time soon.

“I’m 63 and I think I’ve got a  good few years left, and I’m going to f***ing have to have a few good years left,” he laughs. “But I love it. This business has been part of my life for a long, long time. Life is kind of short. You have to live it as much as you can.”