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Ireland Info · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 18 Home Country: ireland

SHOPPING IN IRELAND

GENERAL

Like any other European nation, Ireland has a complete spectrum of shops and stores, from corner stalls to the multi-national department stores.
Ireland is probably most famous for its crystal, such as Waterford, Galway, Dublin, Tipperary and Kinsale. Craftsmen, using skills handed down from generation to generation, produce arguably the most beautiful and famous pieces of glasswork in the world. Waterford Crystal Visitor Centre
Tel: (353) (0) 51 373311).

Aran sweaters, Irish Tweed and Irish Linen also spring to mind when considering shopping in Ireland. Huge ranges of the best quality clothing, pottery and souvenirs can be found throughout Ireland.

Irelands top fashions and the best of Irish design can be found in the elegant flagship department store, Brown Thomas, located in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Modern clothing stores have become very European, with all the leading well known names such as Laura Ashley, Marks and Spencer, Next, Principals, Benetton, and Lain competing in the Irish market place. Other stores found in Ireland are The Body Shop, Boots and Habitat. Similarly, grocery shopping is now dominated by the supermarket chains such as Tesco, Supervalu, Centra and Dunnes Stores. All offer an excellent standard and are competitively priced. There is also a huge range of small, family owned, foods shops offering a vast array of specialty foods and traditional Irish favourites such as smoked salmon and wonderful farmhouse cheeses.

Shopping hours

Mon-Sat 0900-1730/1800. Many towns have a late night opening on Thursday or Friday until 2000/2100 and smaller towns may have one early closing day a week. On Sunday, main shopping centres and some of the larger deprtment stores open from 1200 - 1700/1800. Many smaller supermarkets in towns and villages also open.

DUBLIN

If it's made in Ireland, you can probably buy it in Dublin. Traditional buys include Irish knitwear, Celtic-style jewellery, crystal, fine china and linen. But there are also loads of small shops selling eccentric and offbeat wares and your souvenir trinket doesn't have to be staid.

Interesting Places

Smock
This tiny designer shop on the edge of Temple Bar sells cutting edge international womenswear from classy 'investment labels' Easton Pearson, Veronique Branquinho and AF Vandevorft as well as a small range of interesting jewellery and lingerie.

Temple Bar
Smock Alley Ct
West Essex St
tel - 613 9000
Open: Mon-Fri 10:30-18:00, Sat 10:00-18:00

Eager Beaver
Spread across two floors, Eager Beaver is a very affordable clothing hunter's paradise where you can spend many an hour rummaging around for that wedding suit, cricket jumper or Victorian shirt you never knew you wanted until now.

17 Crown Alley
Temple Bar
tel - 677 3342
Open: Mon-Wed 09:30-18:00, Thu-Fri 09:30-07:30, Sun 12:00-18:00

Whichcraft
A high-end, craft-as-art shop where everything you see is one-off and handmade in Ireland. This wonderful shop features some of the best examples of contemporary design in a variety of mediums, including glass, metal, ceramic and wood.

Cow's Lane
Southside
tel - 474 1011
Website: www.whichcraft.com
Open: Mon-Fri 09:30-18:30, Sat 09:00-18:30, Sun 10:00-18:00 except Thu to 20:00

Sheridans Cheesemongers
If heaven were a cheese shop, Sheridan's would be it. The wooden shelves are laden with rounds of artisan farmhouse cheeses, individually sourced from around the country by Kevin and Seamus Sheridan. You can taste any one of the 60 cheeses on display and pick up some wild Irish salmon, Italian pastas and olives while you're at it.

11 Anne St Sth
Southside
tel - 679 3143
Open: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 09:30-18:00

Barry Doyle Design Jewellers
Upstairs on the southern side of George's St Arcade, Barry Doyle works away in his light-filled, wooden studio producing beautiful, bold, handmade necklaces, bracelets and rings in Celtic and modern designs. Individual pieces can be commissioned - prices are steep but the work is of excellent quality.

30 St George's Arcade
Southside
tel - 671 2838
Open: Mon-Wed & Fri-Sat 10:00-18:00, Thu 0:00-20:00

Avoca Handweavers
Combining clothing, homewares, a basement food hall and an excellent top-floor cafe, Avoca promotes a homey but stylish brand of modern Irish life. Many of the garments are woven, knitted and naturally dyed at the company's Wicklow factory. The children's section is magic, with unusual knits, fairy outfits, theatrical capes, bee-covered gumboots, and toys.

11-13 Suffolk St
Southside
tel - 677 4215
Website: www.avoca.ie
Open: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-18:30, Sun 11:00-18:00 except Thu to 20:00

Roches Stores
A massive redesign of both the store and its contents have catapulted this formerly frumpy department store to near the top of the cool queue. Its hip status is in no small way due to the presence of Zara, the spectacularly successful Spanish label.

Dublin 1
54 Henry St
tel - 873 0044
Website: www.roches-stores.ie
Open: Mon-Wed & Fri-Sat 09:00-18:30, Thu 09:00-21:00, Sun 12:00-18:00

Cathach Books
Cathach Books is one of Dublin's best antiquarian bookshops and a glorious introduction to Ireland's rich literary tradition. You can buy rare editions of Irish literature and history including works by Wilde, Joyce, Yeats and Beckett. The large selection of signed first editions is a boon to collectors.

10 Duke St
Southside
tel - 671 8676
Website: www.rarebooks.ie
Open: Mon-Sat 09:30-17:45

Flip
This hip Irish label takes the best (male) fashion moods of the 1950s and serves them back to us, minus the mothball smell. US college shirts, logo T-shirts, oriental and Hawaiian shirts, Fonz-style leather jackets and well cut jeans mix it with the genuine secondhand gear upstairs.

4 Upper Fownes St
Temple Bar
tel - 671 4299
Website: www.flipclothing.com
Open: Mon-Wed & Fri 10:00-18:00, Thu & Sat 10:00-19:00, Sun 13:30-18:00

Kilkenny Shop
A Dublin institution, this wonderful shop has a wide stock of goods 'made in Ireland', from glassware, pottery and jewellery, to mens and womens fashion. Look out for the shop's own label, whose creations are the brainchild of talented Irish designer Gráinne Walsh.

6 Nassau St
Southside
tel - 677 7066
Open: Mon-Fri 08:30-18:00, Sat 09:00-18:00, Sun 11:00-18:00 except Thu to 20:00