Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre

I think it was mahatma Gandhi who said «you can’t polish a turd», though I might be misquoting him…
Anyway, this was disproven on the show Mythbusters recently (
)
… But speaking of polishing undesirable things, the Dunlaoghaire shopping centre; paint it as often as you wish, lower the ceilings, add some nice lighting… and it is still it is horrible to its very core… plus they charge you for parking
No, not a fan.

Dun Laoghaire shopping centre was hang out spot number one when I was in my early teens. My parents didn’t quite like the idea of me hanging around the city centre without supervision, but sure what harm could come to me in Dun Laoghaire?
They obviously hadn’t noticed the disproportionate number of drunks, junkies and louts that also choose Dun Laoghaire as their number one hang out spot.
All the same, no harm ever came to us and we had a lot of fun here too. We bought clothes in Motion Picture thinking we were the bees knees altogether, ventured into A-​Wear which we found to be a little too old and sophisticated for our young, cool tastes, and scoffed burgers in Graham O’Sulllivans.
The Shopping Centre remains a firm hit with teenage girls, especially with the addition in recent years of New Look (boy would I have loved that shop…). It’s not somewhere I would go on a dedicated shopping trip, but it aint a bad place for a quick browse if you happen to be hanging around the area.

I don’t like this shopping centre. It feels really old fashioned or something and the Tesco supermarket is downstairs and it’s like you are going into the basement to get to it. Having said that, BB’s is downstairs too and they do the most amazing muffins. And there is a New Look on the main floor, which is great as New Look is far too rare in Dublin for my liking. Still, I wouldn’t be going here for a day’s shopping. As shopping centres go, it’s pretty shoddy.

This place was a weekly destination for me and the family when i was just a lad. it seemed to provide me with new adventures every week. as if i didn’t already know it like the back of my hand. Those were the days however when life was simple and huge mega-​stores were a thing only read of in books and seen in that big country across the ocean.
What with Dundrum, Liffey Valley, and those other places you see ads for in the cinema, Dun Laoghaire Shopping centre quickly found itself looking old and decrepit. Its immense red brick façade and dated yellowing plastic interior was no match for clean white concrete and marble floors/​walls/​rooves of the new breed of shopping «malls».
So like any aging man in his 40’s the Shopping centre went through a sort of mid life crisis… it decided to pimp itself out in a bid to win back respect. And before we knew it the place was bright, shiny, airy, and had funky blue lights in the ceiling!!! This however has failed to bring in much extra shoppers it seems and the same stores stay in business while the other weaker stores constantly set up and close up with the seasons.
This place is good if you just need to pick up that book from Dubray or that toy from Toymaster… but don’t expect HMV or Harvey Nichols any time soon.

With the addition of your Dundrum’s and your Liffey Valley’s to the scene, Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre is sure never return to the dizzying heights it once realised as an über popular shopping destination in the 1990’s. It was the kind of place you’d buy your confirmation outfit or pair of new school shoes.
But while the shopping centre that time forgot is no longer in its prime, it has survived. The shops inside have changed somewhat over the years, but classics like Grahame O’Sullivan’s, still remain. There’s still a good selection and you can get all the bits and pieces you might want, including groceries and a pint. I haven’t seen it crowded for a while, though the car park has plenty of cars going through it.
Try shouting ‘weeee!’ when you’re going down the ramps as you descend a floor in the car park — a simple pleasure from my childhood that should put a smile on your face. Either that of you’ll freak out the other passengers in your car, which is still a good laugh courtesy of Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre.

This big blocky brute of a shopping centre dominates central Dun Laoghaire. In many ways, it feels like it was here first and everywhere else was just built around it, hanging off the fringes. Like a shanty town on the edge of some medieval castle.
Still, it’s a good shopping centre.
One of the few shopping centers, in fact, that doesn’t impose wrist slittingly mundane easy listening on you. This is something which makes the place tolerable, pleasant even, by comparison. Further allusions towards the civilised world include the welcome addition of a public house and, most important feature of any shopping centre, multiple exits.