Shopping in Ireland
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Asia Food Market
This large, friendly food emporium should be your first port of call if you want to whip up an Asian feast. For a start it’s really good value, and you’ll find everything here from kitchen implements to hard-to-come-by ingredients such as grass jelly, habanero chillies, brown basmati rice or – should you wish – chicken’s feet.
reviewed
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Powerscourt Centre
This upmarket shopping mall in an 18th-century town house is where discerning shoppers quietly visit boutiques, beauty salons and the 1st-floor art, craft and antique shops. The Design Centre and FCUK are also here, as is a great vegetarian restaurant and a wig store. The courtyard Powerscourt Cafe is a pleasant spot to gather yourself.
reviewed
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Bridge Mills
A general purpose shopping centre in an old mill building by the river at the western end of William O'Brien Bridge.
reviewed
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Bookfinders
A studenty second-hand bookshop and book-finding service with a gallery, cafe and regular poetry readings.
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Celtic Bookshop
A fine addition to the local scene with books on local and Irish topics.
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Tower Craft Design Centre
Housed in a 19th-century warehouse that was Dublin’s first iron-structured building, this design centre has studios for local craftspeople. They produce jewellery in both contemporary and Celtic-inspired designs, and work with Irish pewter, ceramics, silk and other fabrics. Besides jewellery they knock out pottery, rugs, wall hangings, cards, leather bags and various other handcrafted items. It’s immediately opposite the Waterways Visitors Centre, off Lower Grand Canal St.
reviewed
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Cow’s Lane Market
A real market for hipsters, on the steps of Cow’s Lane, this market brings together over 60 of the best clothing, accessory and craft stalls in town. Buy cutting-edge designer duds from the likes of Drunk Monk, punky T-shirts, retro handbags, costume jewellery by Kink Bijoux and even clubby baby-wear. It’s open from June to September; the rest of the year it moves indoors to St Michael’s and St John’s Banquet Hall, just around the corner.
reviewed
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Carrickmacross Lace Gallery
In the town’s former cattle yards, a local cooperative runs the Carrickmacross Lace Gallery, which sells the distinctive gossamerlike designs. Designs here are appliquéd on organza using thick thread and close stitches. Excess organza is cut away and the work is embellished with a variety of point stitches, guipure, pops and the lace’s distinctive loop edge. Most famously, Carrickmacross lace graced the sleeves of Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
reviewed
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Kilkenny Design Centre
Top-end Irish crafts and artwork for sale include items by artisans county-wide. Look for John Hanly wool blankets, Cushendale woollen goods, Foxford scarves and Bunbury cutting boards.
reviewed
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Cahir Craft Granary
Hundreds of locals toiled away in a notorious linen mill during the 19th century. Almost 200 years later, the once ominous stone building has been reborn as the Cahir Craft Granary, with local artists creating and selling works including pottery, carvings, paintings and jewellery. It's just north of the Square, past the post office.
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Vivien Walsh
One of Ireland’s best-known jewellery designers, Vivien Walsh uses Swarovski crystal, glass, feathers, pearls and beads to create delicate, fantastical pieces that hark back to the 1920s and beyond. The elaborate necklaces, in vivid turquoise, pink, purple and green, are quite an investment, but simple bracelets can be had for under €40. French and Italian leather bags and shoes complement the displays.
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Circus Store & Gallery
If you are looking for the most elegant, one-off creations by Irish designers – from dresses for that fancy occasion to pins to tie up your hair – and fancy looking at some contemporary local art in the meantime, this wonderful new shop is perfect for you. You mightn’t know any of the designers represented here, but that’s only because they’re still busy making their time come.
reviewed
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Sheridans Cheesemongers
If heaven were a cheese shop, this would be it. Wooden shelves are laden with rounds of farmhouse cheeses, sourced by Kevin and Seamus Sheridan, who have almost single-handedly revived the practice of cheese-making in Ireland. You can taste any one of the 60 cheeses on display and, while you’re at it, you can also pick up some wild Irish salmon, Italian pastas and olives.
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Linen Green
Housed in the former Moygashel Linen Mills, the Linen Green complex includes a range of designer shops and factory outlets, plus a visitor centre with an exhibition covering the history of the local linen industry. It's a good place to shop for bargain men's and women's fashion, shoes, accessories and linen goods or to stop for lunch at the Deli on the Green.
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Waterstone’s
Although it is large and multistoried, Waterstone’s somehow manages to maintain that hide-in-a-corner ambience that book lovers adore. The broad selection of books is supplemented by five bookcases of Irish fiction, in addition to poetry, drama, politics and history. Waterstone’s hosts book signings every Thursday evening; check the board outside for details.
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Brown Thomas
This is Dublin's most expensive department store, suitably stocked to cater for the city's more moneyed shoppers. You'll find every top label represented here. The 3rd-floor Bottom Drawer outlet stocks the finest Irish linen you'll find anywhere.
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Moore Street Market
An open-air, steadfastly ‘Old Dublin’ market, with fruit, fish and flowers on offer. Traditional vendors hawk cheap cigarettes, tobacco and chocolate among the new wave of Nigerians and Chinese selling phone cards and hair extensions. Don’t try to buy just one banana though – if the sign says 10 for €1, that’s what it is.
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George's St Arcade
Dublin's best nonfood market (there's sadly not much competition) is sheltered within an elegant Victorian Gothic arcade. Apart from the shops and stalls selling new and old clothes, second-hand books, hats, posters, jewellery and records, there's a fortune teller, some gourmet nibbles and a fish-and-chipper who does a roaring trade.
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Brícín
Interesting local craftwork, including jewellery and pottery, alongside touristy wares, plus a restaurant .
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Tommy Hilfiger
tommy hilfiger ‘Traditional with a twist’ is how Tommy Hilfiger describes his own fashions, and he’s right, if the twist is designing clothes that are as appealing to a yummy mummy as to a rapper. The American designer cut the ribbon on this elegant store on Dublin’s most prestigious shopping street in late 2008.
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Aunt Sandra’s Candy Factory
Sweeties may not be at the top of parents’ shopping lists these days, but you might be prepared to make an exception for Aunt Sandra’s Candy Factory. This 1950s-style shop sells fudge, candy, chocolates, toffee apples and other traditional sweets, which have been made by hand, and you can get a tour of the workshop before buying the goods.
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Walton’s
These traditional music specialists sell CDs, instruments, sheet music for Irish harp, flute and fiddle, and song books featuring tunes by Irish music greats, including the Wolfe Tones, the Fureys and the Dubliners. You can also take two-hour crash courses in the bodhrán (Irish drums) or tin whistle at its music school. God bless the staff.
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Havana
This is as exclusive as Dublin fashion boutiques get, but the rewards for a trek out here are the best of Irish design – Lucy Downe’s Sphere One cashmeres, Joanne Hynes’ elegant evening wear – as well as a host of other top international names. Shoes, jewellery and accessories fill out the rest of the stock.
reviewed
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Lisburn Road
Ultrahip shopping district: a straggling strip of red-brick and mock-Tudor façades lined with fashion boutiques, interior-design shops, art galleries, delicatessens, espresso bars, wine bars and chic restaurants - and the unexpected concentration of designer fashion shops (about a dozen of them) on Bloomfield Ave in East Belfast.
reviewed
