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ORBISTHE DUBLIN ISSUEBest of Dublin; search or filter for all 60
56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin
Hodges Figgis sells books from its Dawson Street premises in Dublin, with a dedicated Irish range. That range covers Irish fiction and history alongside poetry, travel writing and Irish-language books. The business traces its beginnings to 1768 on Skinner's Row, rather than to the current building.
Best for Irish writing and general books in Dublin
Kildare Street
Cleo has sold Irish knitwear and textiles from Kildare Street since Kit Ryan founded it in 1936, run today by the third generation of the Joyce family. The rails hold hand-knits and hand-weaves in undyed wool and linen from small Irish makers.
Best for Hand-knit Irish wool and linen clothing
Dublin City Centre
Dublin tailors founded in 1936 by Jim Kevin and Michael Howlin at 39 Nassau Street; since 1973 run by the Kevin family from 31 Nassau Street as a specialist in handwoven Donegal tweed jackets, coats, hats and countrywear.
Best for Donegal tweed caps and Irish country clothing
Kevin & Howlin was founded in 1936 by Jim Kevin and his partner Michael Howlin as tailors and outfitters at 39 Nassau Street in Dublin, specializing in handwoven tweed alongside general tailoring. In 1973, redevelopment of the original premises pushed the business — by then run by Jim's son Noel — to 31 Nassau Street, where it narrowed its focus exclusively to tweed. The shop's jackets, coats, hats and countrywear are woven to its specification in Donegal. Nearly ninety years on, the business remains family-run from the same Nassau Street address, one of Dublin's longest-standing specialist tailoring shops.
Dublin / Ireland
Peterson's origins run back to 1865, when German immigrant brothers Friedrich and Heinrich Kapp opened a pipe-making shop, Kapp Brothers, on Grafton Street in Dublin, working in meerschaum and briar root.
Best for Irish System pipes and briar pipe craftsmanship from the world's
Peterson's origins run back to 1865, when German immigrant brothers Friedrich and Heinrich Kapp opened a pipe-making shop, Kapp Brothers, on Grafton Street in Dublin, working in meerschaum and briar root. Charles Peterson later brought the brothers a pipe design of his own and proposed a partnership; the firm was renamed Kapp & Peterson and went on to patent, in 1890, the reservoir-and-bore "System" pipe design that still carries the Peterson name. The company is described by pipe-trade sources as the oldest continuously operating briar pipe factory in the world, and today Peterson trades from a retail shop at 48-49 Nassau Street, Dublin 2.
The Nassau Street premises sells Peterson's own pipe lines, including the System, Aran, Sherlock Holmes and Donegal Rocky ranges, together with pipe accessories. Peterson's own site states that its silversmiths, who fit the sterling-silver bands used on many of the firm's pipes, train in-house through an apprenticeship the company describes as lasting four to eight years, and that the wider production tradition is passed down within the workshop across generations of pipe-makers.
Peterson's System design introduced a moisture-wicking reservoir and graduated internal bore intended to keep the smoke channel drier, an engineering approach that distinguished it from standard briar pipes of the period and that the company continues to manufacture using the same underlying patent principle.
City Centre
Books Upstairs was opened in May 1978 by Maurice Earls and Enda O'Doherty above a furrier on South King Street. After years at 36 College Green it moved in 2015 to a Georgian building at 17 D'Olier Street. The rooms hold new and secondhand stock, and the shop runs a cafe and literary events. Louisa Earls joined the family business with the move.
Best for A literary café and event space at Dublin's long-running bookshop since 1978
Books Upstairs was established in 1978 and is regarded as Dublin's oldest independent general bookshop, occupying a series of interconnecting rooms spread across three floors in two adjoining buildings on D'Olier Street, just south of O'Connell Bridge. The layout reflects the building's age and piecemeal expansion over the decades rather than a single planned retail fit-out, giving the shop a warren-like character as customers move between rooms and levels of general fiction, Irish interest, poetry and children's titles. Upstairs, the shop runs a café with a large original window overlooking D'Olier Street, a space that doubles as an informal reading room and has made the store a fixture of Dublin's literary and event scene, hosting readings and launches over more than four decades of continuous trading. The bookshop has been recognized by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature as part of the city's literary landmarks, cited alongside the capital's better-known literary institutions despite its comparatively modest size. Now well into its fifth decade under continuous independent ownership, Books Upstairs has maintained its identity as a general bookshop through a period in which many comparable independents in central Dublin closed, making its survival as much a part of its story as its stock.
Creative Quarter, Dublin
A shop presenting jewelry, textiles, ceramics, prints, woodwork, and home objects made by Irish designers and craftspeople. Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey began the business online in 2008 and opened the physical shop in 2009.
Best for Irish-made jewelry, textiles, ceramics, woodwork and home objects
South City Centre, Dublin
STABLE of Ireland brings Irish linen and handwoven textiles to a shop in Dublin's Westbury Mall, just off Grafton Street. Its clothing and scarf collections sit alongside home textiles. The brand works with weavers and other makers across the island of Ireland, giving traditional textile skills a place in contemporary designs.
Best for Irish linen, woven scarves and home textiles in central Dublin
STABLE of Ireland is a useful stop for someone interested in textiles rather than a general souvenir assortment. Its Dublin shop sits in Westbury Mall, just off Grafton Street, with scarves and clothing alongside pieces for the home. Linen and woven fabrics are central to the collection, so comparing their feel in person is part of the reason to visit.
The brand works with makers across the island of Ireland, including weavers and knitters in both north and south. It draws on skills associated with rural life and gives them new uses in contemporary clothing and household textiles. That approach connects a scarf or throw to a craft tradition without requiring the buyer to choose a historical reproduction.
Irish making is an important part of STABLE's work, but its own sourcing statement includes the qualification that this happens where feasible. Check the individual piece if manufacturing origin is important to your purchase. The shop presents the full range and offers a place to ask about the textile and the people behind it.
68 South Great George's Street, Dublin
Irish design shop — stationery, prints, homeware, and gifts by Irish designers. Perfect for souvenirs that aren't tacky.
Best for Stationery, prints, homeware, and gifts by Irish designers
Newmarket, The Liberties
Teeling opened at Newmarket in 2015 as the first new whiskey distillery in Dublin in more than 125 years, reviving distilling in the Liberties. Guided tours run every twenty minutes and finish with a tasting, backed by an on-site shop, the Bang Bang Bar and the Phoenix Café.
Best for Distillery tour, tastings and Dublin-made whiskey
Ormond Quay
The Winding Stair became a Dublin landmark as a bookshop in the 1970s, named after a Yeats poem and set beside the Ha'penny Bridge on Lower Ormond Quay. It reopened in 2006 with a restaurant upstairs, keeping the ground-floor bookshop and its old shelves intact.
Best for Ground-floor bookshop and riverside dining
Powerscourt Townhouse
Chupi's Dublin flagship is at the Powerscourt Centre, with an entrance on Clarendon Street. The jewellery collection includes engagement and wedding rings using natural or laboratory-grown diamonds. Consultations let customers discuss a ring in person, with video appointments offered as another route.
Best for Irish-made rings and jewellery consultations in Dublin
Chupi is an Irish jewelry brand founded in 2013 by Chupi Sweetman, a former fashion designer. Its flagship retail store is inside the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre on Clarendon Street in Dublin, a Georgian-era shopping arcade. The brand is built around recycled-gold jewelry and works with an in-house team of goldsmiths on site; Sweetman has described plans to expand the Dublin space with a second floor for private client appointments and additional workshop space for the goldsmithing team. Coverage of the brand frames it around Sweetman's own story and the goldsmithing operation being based in the Dublin shop rather than the jewelry being produced elsewhere and only sold there.
South City Centre
ESL’s in-house goldsmiths remodel unworn jewellery as well as designing custom pieces from scratch. The service begins with the client’s stones, metal and ideas, making the shop useful for sentimental redesigns.
Best for Custom work, jewelry redesign
Dublin
Dublin whiskey specialist carrying 500+ Irish and international whiskeys, with tastings, staff guidance and detailed knowledge across styles, regions and distilleries. The shop is built around helping buyers navigate the range and choose bottles that fit different tastes.
Best for 500+ whiskeys, tastings, and expert dram-matching advice
Dublin
The Proper Chocolate Company makes bean-to-bar chocolate in small batches in Dublin. Patrick and Kelli Marjolet founded the business in 2016 after experimenting with cocoa beans while living in San Francisco. The makers select and roast the beans to bring out their individual flavours before turning them into chocolate.
Best for Dublin-made bean-to-bar chocolate in small batches
The Proper Chocolate Company makes bean-to-bar chocolate in micro-batches in Dublin, and the phrase is meant literally. Every step happens in their own facilities. The beans are hand-sorted before roasting. They are cracked and winnowed on site. Refining and conching happen there too, and the chocolate is aged before being tempered and moulded on the premises.
Very little chocolate sold anywhere is made this way, and the difference is not marketing.
Patrick and Kelli Marjolet founded the business in May 2016, but it started three years earlier in San Francisco. Patrick was given a bag of cocoa beans by a local small-batch maker and decided to try making his own chocolate. The obsession that followed has not let up since.
The sourcing argument is the one worth hearing. They compare it to winemaking: seek out the beans you want, then roast them to bring out their own flavours rather than to a house standard. Treated properly, cocoa releases a range of savours and subtleties that do not survive mass production.
Dublin
Former carpenter Eoin Cluskey trained at Ballymaloe before opening Bread 41 on Dublin's Pearse Street in 2018. The bakery specializes in long-fermented sourdough made with only flour, salt, and water, and has since expanded to Greystones and Stillorgan.
Best for Long-fermented sourdough from a Ballymaloe-trained former carpenter
Eoin Cluskey came to baking sideways. A carpenter by trade, he trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School and then worked in bakeries across Europe, watching how bread functioned there as a point of daily connection between neighbors, not just a commodity. He returned to Dublin convinced the city was missing a bakery built on craft and values rather than volume, and in September 2018 he opened Bread 41 as a bakery and eatery next to its own ovens on Pearse Street.
The bakery's discipline is deliberately narrow: long-fermented breads made from just flour, salt, and water, using traditional methods rather than shortcuts or additives. That restraint became the foundation for slow, values-led growth rather than rapid expansion — Cluskey has described it in exactly those terms, prioritizing sustainability over scale.
Still, the business has grown steadily since that first Pearse Street shop, adding locations in Greystones and Stillorgan and now employing more than 100 people across its bakery and retail operations. Bread 41's sourdough and pastries are also sold at additional spots around Dublin, extending a bakery that began as one carpenter's attempt to bring real bread back to an Irish city.
South Great George's Street, Dublin
Victorian market arcade — independent shops, vintage clothing, vinyl records, and street food vendors. A covered market with real character.
Best for Victorian covered arcade with vintage clothing, vinyl records, and street food vendors.
George's Street Arcade began as South City Markets, a purpose-built Victorian shopping centre in Dublin. The Dublin South City Market Company was incorporated in 1876, and British architects Lockwood and Mauson designed the market. Lord Mayor Sir George Moyers formally opened it in 1881. A fire destroyed the building on 27 August 1892, displacing shopkeepers and stallholders. Local labour and craftspeople rebuilt the centre in the same style, and it reopened on 13 September 1894. The market has traded continuously since that reopening and is now generally known as George's Street Arcade. The Layden Family Group acquired the property in 1992 and continued refurbishment in keeping with the Victorian structure. The arcade reports approximately fifty tenants, ranging from a department store to small stalls. Its directory spans fashion and accessories. Silver and costume jewellery appear beside hair services and music, while other tenants cover art and books. Memorabilia and cafés share the arcade with groceries and speciality foods. Published at South Great George's Street, Dublin 2, the operating market carries a documented history of construction and destruction followed by rebuilding.
Dublin
This is Knit sells yarn, needles, patterns and knitting accessories, with workshops supporting learners and experienced makers. Fibre, weight and project guidance make the Dublin shop more useful than a general craft aisle.
Best for Craft shop.
Marino, Dublin
Brookwood Pottery combines Elaine Fallon's ceramics studio with a design shop in Marino, Dublin. Its own stoneware tableware sits alongside jewellery and other work by Irish makers. Pottery classes provide a way to spend time working with clay as well as choosing a finished piece.
Best for Stoneware tableware and Irish craft in Dublin
Brookwood Pottery brings making and retail together in Marino, Dublin. Elaine Fallon established the business in 2012 and opened the Marino design shop and studio in 2021. Its own stoneware includes mugs and bowls as well as vases and candle holders, with glazes forming an important part of the finished pieces.
The shop also stocks work by other Irish makers. Jewellery and textiles broaden the choice beyond ceramics. Prints and smaller household gifts let a visit range across different crafts. Brookwood's own pottery and another maker's work remain distinct collections, so a question about production should be directed to the particular item rather than answered for the whole shop.
Classes offer another way to engage with the studio. Someone interested in working with clay can consult the published programme, while a shopper can concentrate on the finished tableware. For a useful comparison, look at the form and glaze of the pieces intended for everyday use alongside more decorative objects. The appeal lies in being able to encounter a working pottery practice and a wider design selection at the same address.
32/34 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin
3FE's Grand Canal Street café is the Dublin coffee business's flagship location, with a menu covering breakfast through brunch and lunch. Its website offers table reservations and a click-and-collect service for this branch. Beyond the café, the company sells coffee and brewing equipment online, including blends prepared at its Dublin roastery.
Best for Coffee and brunch at the Grand Canal Street flagship
Rathgar, Dublin
Family-run concept shop at 99b Rathgar Road in Rathgar Village, Dublin, trading since 2009 and selling sustainable Irish and European clothing, textiles and homeware, including Merz b. Schwanen, Nygårdsanna, Heschung and Mourne Textiles.
Best for Irish fashion, jewelry, and gift objects in a neighborhood concept shop
99b Concept Store is a family-run shop at 99b Rathgar Road in Rathgar Village, Dublin 6, where the owners have lived above the shop since 2013 and traded since 2009. The store built its identity around sustainability and ethical production, pairing Irish craftsmanship with design from Sweden, France, Finland, Spain and Germany. Its clothing and textile lines include Merz b. Schwanen, the German label known for reviving vintage loopwheel knitting machines to make heavyweight cotton basics, alongside the Swedish label Nygårdsanna, French label Herbert Frere Soeur, Inoui Editions scarves and Heschung leather shoes; home goods include KaunisKyla textiles from Finland and Irish-woven Mourne Textiles, plus ceramics, candles and handmade jewelry sourced directly from small studios rather than wholesale catalogues. It was included in The Gloss magazine's 2024-2025 list of Ireland's best shops, cited specifically for sustainability, ethical production and the preservation of traditional craft techniques. The shop's positioning runs counter to fast fashion: rather than turning over seasonal stock quickly, it holds a tighter, slower-moving selection built around materials and makers the owners can vouch for directly.
Rathmines, Dublin
April & The Bear, at 213 Rathmines Road Lower in Dublin, sells eclectic homewares, exclusive art prints, gifts and furniture spanning sofas, dining furniture, lighting, rugs, candles, cushions and tableware. The shop also runs A+TB Design Studio, offering interior design consulting.
Best for Eclectic homewares and furniture
12 Henry Street, Dublin
Arnotts is a department store on Henry Street in central Dublin, with a history reaching back to a shop opened there in 1843. Its departments bring clothing and household shopping together under one roof, rather than specialising in a single maker. The store has changed ownership and expanded over time while remaining associated with the same Dublin shopping street.
Best for Department-store shopping on Dublin's Henry Street
Arnotts occupies 12 Henry Street in central Dublin, where its history began as a drapery and haberdashery in 1843. The business started as Cannock, White & Co.; John Arnott invested in 1855, giving the store the name it retains. Fire destroyed the original premises in 1894, and the company's own chronology records later additions that included in-house garment production during the 1930s. Beauty and fragrance departments followed, while separate gifts and children's departments broadened the store. The present store combines department-store retail with services and concessions. Arnotts lists fashion and beauty as main fields, with homeware forming another part of the offer. Restaurants share the building with Grafton Barber and Nossa Beauty, while Zeba Hairdressing is also among the current services. Eason operates on the lower ground floor with books and stationery. Its concession also covers gifts and cards. An opticians and a pre-owned accessories partnership with Designer Exchange broaden the store beyond conventional department counters. Arnotts is now operated by Brown Thomas Arnotts Limited, although the Henry Street address and the 1843 lineage remain explicit on its current official pages.
Powerscourt Townhouse, Dublin
Article is a Dublin design shop for furniture, lighting and home accessories with a Scandinavian-leaning edit. Its Powerscourt setting gives shoppers a compact place to compare practical objects and smaller furnishings.
Best for Scandinavian furniture and lighting at the Powerscourt location
11-13 Suffolk Street, Dublin
Colourful Irish lifestyle store — throws, blankets, homeware, and a food hall, with its rainbow-striped woollen blankets as a signature.
Best for Lifestyle store.
Grafton Street, Dublin
Ireland's luxury department store — designer fashion, a celebrated beauty hall, and Christmas windows that are a Dublin tradition.
Best for Designer fashion, a celebrated beauty hall, and Dublin's traditional Christmas windows
Ivy Exchange, Parnell Street, Dublin
Ireland's largest independent bookshop — huge selection, new and second-hand. A Dublin institution.
Best for Ireland's largest independent bookshop — new and second-hand books
Dublin
Claddagh Records specialises in Irish traditional music across vinyl, CDs and selected instruments. Its catalogue is valuable for finding regional players and labels that general record shops may file only broadly as folk.
Best for Irish traditional music — CDs, vinyl, and instruments
21a High Street, Dublin 2 (Powerscourt Townhouse) / Online
Independent perfumes and scented candles composed and hand-poured in Galway, sold through the Dublin boutique.
Best for Perfumes and candles composed and hand-poured in Galway, informed by the history
Dublin 2 / Online
Natural fabrics for clothing and interiors are the centre of the Dublin shop, including Irish linen, wool tweed and lace. Liberty cottons and silks sit beside notions, giving dressmakers both base cloth and finishing materials.
Best for Fabrics, haberdashery supplies, sewing classes and made-to-measure services
Dublin
Cocoa Atelier is a Dublin chocolate house producing handmade filled chocolates, truffles and coated nuts in its city-centre atelier. The range runs from dark, milk and white chocolate drops to fruit truffles and marshmallows.
Best for Handmade filled chocolates and truffles
Various locations, Dublin
Coffeeangel has served specialty coffee from ten Dublin cafés since 2004, its beans roasted weekly by Bailies in Belfast. It donates five percent of profits to local biodiversity projects.
Best for Specialty coffee across ten Dublin cafés
Coffeeangel has operated in Dublin since 2004, building a ten-café chain around a straightforward supply-chain choice: rather than roasting in-house, its coffee is roasted weekly by Bailies in Belfast and delivered to Dublin within days, so the beans in the cup are rarely more than a week off the roaster. The company treats that short roast-to-cup window, more than any single blend, as its core differentiator.
The chain's newest location opened on Shelbourne Road, adding to nine existing Dublin cafés serving both house blends and rotating single-origin coffees. Coffeeangel also commits five percent of profits to local biodiversity initiatives — a specific, stated percentage rather than a vague sustainability claim — and offers free delivery across Ireland on orders over €35.
Two decades in, the chain's pitch remains narrow and consistent: fresh-roasted coffee delivered fast, from a named external roaster, across a small but growing number of company-run Dublin cafés.
City centre, Dublin
Costelloe + Costelloe, at 14a Chatham Street in Dublin, sells totes, robes, makeup bags, fascinators, wraps, scarves, clutch and leather handbags, jewellery, homeware gifts and hair accessories.
Best for Accessories and gift homeware
South City Markets, Dublin
A multi-brand women’s boutique carrying independent international fashion labels and accessories. The boutique was founded in 1997.
Best for Independent international fashion labels and accessories, curated since 1997
Dublin / Ireland / Online
As the final stop on the visitor route through EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, this shop sells Irish-made jewelry, homeware, books, and keepsakes sourced from small Irish designers and makers. It ships worldwide from its online store, with free gift wrapping and free delivery on larger orders within Ireland.
Best for Irish-gifts, jewelry, books, homeware
South City Centre, Dublin
ESL’s in-house goldsmiths create custom jewellery, remodel unworn pieces and work with lab-grown diamonds. The redesign service is especially useful for reusing sentimental stones or metal in a wearable new form.
Best for Custom jewelry, redesigns of existing pieces, and lab-grown diamonds.
72 Benburb Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7 / Online
In a Smithfield studio on Benburb Street, founder Jamie Lewis hand-felts wool into animals and small woollen objects, blending the fleece in view of anyone who walks in. Dublin craft at its most literal — one pair of hands, one flock.
Best for Founder-made wool-felted animals
South City Centre, Dublin
A women’s fashion shop selling the label’s own collections, occasionwear, accessories, and selected independent brands. Stylist Blanaid Hennessy founded the business in Kilkenny in 2008.
Best for In-house collections, occasionwear and independent fashion
Dublin / Ireland
Dublin-area butcher trading since 1930 from shops in Dalkey, Deansgrange and Rathfarnham. It dry-ages beef, lamb, pork and poultry sourced from traditional breeds including Aberdeen Angus and Hereford, with next-day delivery to South County Dublin and the city centre.
Best for Dry-aged Aberdeen Angus and Hereford beef since 1930.
Howth, Dublin
Howth's whiskey shop — independent bottlings and rare Irish expressions. The knowledgeable owner is passionate about small distilleries.
Best for Whiskey shop.
Creative Quarter, Dublin
An Irish designer boutique selling Helen McAlinden’s women’s clothing and accessories. Helen McAlinden established her label in 2001.
Best for Helen McAlinden's own womenswear and accessories label, established 2001.
City centre, Dublin
House of Read, at No 4 Parliament Street in Dublin and dating to around 1712 when James Read became an apprentice cutler before the firm won a royal warrant for cutlery and surgical instruments in 1821, today sells chocolates, macaroons, pastries, jams, marmalades and chutneys. It also stocks china, silverware, candles and both new and vintage silver-plate tableware bearing its elephant-and-castle design, in a building restored in 2017.
Best for Chocolates preserves and silver tableware
Dublin / Ireland
The IFI Film Shop sits inside the Irish Film Institute, the charity that runs Ireland's national film archive on Eustace Street. It stocks Irish and international film books, archive box sets, and posters, with IFI members getting 10% off.
Best for Irish and international cinema books, archive box sets and gifts
The IFI Film Shop operates inside the Irish Film Institute at 6 Eustace Street in Temple Bar, the retail arm of what the IFI describes as "Ireland's national cultural institution for film." The Institute is a registered charity (No. 20021429) built around five stated pillars — Exhibit, Preserve, Educate, Innovate, and People — and its Preserve function, run through the IFI Irish Film Archive, gives the shop's stock a distinct backbone: alongside new releases, it carries archive box sets and critical writing tied directly to the Institute's own preservation work.
That connection to the Archive shows up on the shelves — Irish television and film box sets like Love/Hate sit next to critical writing from figures such as Mark Cousins and David Thomson, and the shop favors Irish and international arthouse cinema over mainstream new-release stock. Annual IFI membership, sold at the shop, carries a 10% discount on further purchases, tying retail to the Institute's broader mission of building sustained audiences for film rather than one-off sales. The shop, cinema, and café bar share the same Eustace Street building, making the store as much a coda to a cinema visit as a standalone destination.
41a/b Drury Street, Dublin 2 / Online
INDUSTRY & CO is an independent Dublin design retailer combining homeware, jewellery, apothecary goods and a café. The range centers on homeware, jewellery, and apothecary items from local Irish designers and European, USA, with production associated with Ireland.
Best for Homeware, jewellery, and apothecary items from local Irish designers and European, USA
Temple Bar
An independent gallery-shop selling Irish illustration, prints, cards and design. Established 2011.
Best for Irish illustration, Dublin prints and local design gifts
Jam Art Factory was founded in 2011 by brothers Mark and John, opening first on Patrick Street in Dublin's Liberties before adding a second, smaller shop in Crown Alley in Temple Bar in 2013. Both locations operate as gallery-shops rather than conventional souvenir stores, stocking work from a rotating roster of Irish artists and designers -- ceramics, textiles, jewellery, screen prints, and pieces drawing on Dublin's street-art scene -- with an emphasis on supporting emerging and student makers alongside more established names. The shop's identity is built around direct relationships with its contributing artists rather than wholesale distribution, and it maintains a dedicated offshoot site for its print business separate from its general retail catalogue. The Patrick Street location was recognized in the Irish Times' list of Ireland's fifty best shops in 2013, two years after opening, a mark of how quickly the gallery model found an audience. Together the two Dublin branches function as one of the city's more consistently cited stops for visitors and locals looking for Irish-made design and art outside the mainstream souvenir trade.
Smithfield, Dublin
Jennifer Slattery designs Irish-made linens, clothing and homewares from a Smithfield textile studio. The shop connects finished pieces with the designer’s own prints, natural fibres and small-scale local production.
Best for Irish-made linens, clothing, and homewares designed by Jennifer Slattery
City Centre
Jenny Vander is a vintage clothing and costume jewellery shop at 50 Drury Street in Dublin 2, established in 1974. Nine cabinets hold jewellery sorted by colour, and the clothing centres on evening and cocktail dresses made before 1960. Only true vintage is sold, with no reproductions, and stock changes weekly. There is no website, so buying means visiting the shop in person.
Best for Designer vintage clothing and costume jewellery
Jenny Vander sells vintage clothing and costume jewellery from 50 Drury Street in Dublin 2. The Shopkeepers records the shop as established in 1974 and notes there is no website, so a visit in person is required. Visit Dublin describes nine jewellery cabinets in which pieces are arranged by colour, and states that only true vintage is sold, with no reproductions. The clothing leans toward evening and cocktail dresses made before 1960, along with shawls and stoles, beaded tops and jackets. DublinTown puts it as statement dresses for a woman of 1925 onward, decade by decade, with cases of costume jewellery that often come as complete sets of earrings and necklace with a matching bracelet. Stock changes weekly. Stylists are frequent visitors, and The Shopkeepers lists the shop in its Ireland selections for 2023 and 2024, adding that international stylists have dressed clients in looks bought here. Ball gowns are a particular strength, and the shop trades under the Jenny Vander name on Instagram.
Francis Street, Dublin
Johnston Antiques, a family business dealing for over 60 years since its 1950 founding, sells Irish Georgian and English furniture, paintings, prints, mirrors and objects, including barometers, bronze figures, tea tables, desks and wine coolers. Pieces are made of mahogany, satinwood, walnut and rosewood dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, in styles including Hepplewhite and Regency.
Best for Georgian antique furniture
Dublin
Irish design and craft retailer carrying pottery, jewellery, textiles and homeware by Irish makers, with a broad contemporary craft selection across its shops and online.
Best for Irish pottery, jewellery, textiles, and homeware by Irish makers
Dublin / Ireland
The Kilmainham Gaol Book and Gift Shop occupies the ground floor of the Courthouse Visitor Centre and can be visited without a museum ticket, and it also sells online at kilmainhamgaolbooks.ie. It stocks books tied to the site's history as a 19th- and 20th-century Irish prison alongside general gift items.
Best for Books, gifts, irish-history
The Harbour, Howth, Dublin
Howth's harbour fish shop — buy the freshest catch or eat fish and chips on the pier. Watch the fishing boats unload while you eat.
Best for Watch the fishing boats unload
Capel Street
The Copeland family has tailored menswear in Dublin since Hyman Coplan arrived from Lithuania in the early 1900s, with the business formalised by Louis Copeland in 1933. The Capel Street flagship and city-centre branches handle made-to-measure suits and ready-to-wear.
Best for Made-to-measure suits and menswear
Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, Dublin
MoMuse, founded by designer Margaret O'Rourke and based at Powerscourt Townhouse Centre in Dublin, sells 18kt and 9kt gold, gold-filled, platinum and sterling silver rings, necklaces, earrings and bangles, with solid gold pieces hallmarked at Dublin Castle's Assay Office. Gold-filled collections are hand-finished in the Dublin studio, and the brand's collections include Night Sky, Serendipity and Abstract.
Best for Fine gold jewellery
27 Drury Street, Dublin 2 / Online
Independent Dublin boutique presenting clothing, accessories, vintage and work by more than 50 Irish-based designers and makers.
Best for Unique Irish design pieces from 50+ Irish-based designers and makers
Dublin 2
Parfumarija is an independent niche perfumery specializing in artistic and hard-to-find fragrance houses.
Best for Artistic, hard-to-find niche fragrance houses
South Anne Street
Brothers Seamus and Kevin Sheridan began selling Irish farmhouse cheese at Galway market in 1995 and opened their South Anne Street shop soon after. The counter stacks raw-milk rounds of Durrus, Coolea and Cashel Blue alongside European cheeses, charcuterie and oils.
Best for Irish farmhouse cheese and artisan foods
City centre, Dublin
The Collective, at 24 Drury St in Dublin, sells rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches and watches from handpicked designers, with a fine-jewellery line made from recycled gold with ethically sourced gemstones and diamonds alongside gold-plated brass and sterling silver pieces. The shop also offers bespoke engagement rings, engraving and fingerprint jewellery.
Best for Designer and bespoke jewellery
City Centre
Independent secondhand bookshop and record store at 15A Wicklow Street in central Dublin, Ireland, buying, selling and trading used books alongside vinyl records and CDs.
Best for Used books and vinyl below Wicklow Street
The Secret Book and Record Store is an independent shop at 15A Wicklow Street in central Dublin, dealing in secondhand and discounted books alongside vinyl records and CDs. It operates on a buy-sell-exchange model typical of Dublin's used-book trade and has built a following among locals and visitors browsing its stock for out-of-print titles and rare records.
Dublin 2
The Sweater Shop's Nassau Street store in Dublin sells knitwear alongside woollen gifts for the home. Aran sweaters are a central part of the range, with different garment styles available through the shop and online. The family business began in 1986 and has continued with the next generation involved.
Best for Aran sweaters and woollen gifts in Dublin
The Sweater Shop opened in 1986 and operates as a family-run business at 30 Nassau Street, Dublin 2, with extended online operations. Owned by Paul and Laura, the shop specializes in authentic Aran sweaters, fisherman knits, and traditional Irish textiles for men, women, and children. The business emphasizes its Irish heritage with the tagline "100% Irish — 40 Years in Business" and has accumulated over 4,800 customer reviews. The company offers a generous four-month return policy and maintains physical shop hours Monday-Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday-Sunday 11:00-18:00. The firm commits to sustainability practices by prioritizing recycled or natural fibers and non-toxic natural dye processes in its inventory.
7 Dawson Street, Dublin
Tower Records runs two Dublin shops, the flagship at 7 Dawson Street and a second store in the Eason's Building on Lower O'Connell Street. It holds Ireland's largest vinyl selection in each branch, an extensive classical CD range and a Tower Hifi department. In-store performances have featured Fontaines D.C., Lankum and Bjork.
Best for Vinyl, CDs, gig tickets, and knowledgeable staff at Dublin's music-scene hub
Tower Records describes itself as Ireland's largest independent record store, with two shops in central Dublin. The flagship stands at 7 Dawson Street in Dublin 2, and the second store trades from the Eason's Building at 40 Lower O'Connell Street in Dublin 1. Each branch holds one of the two largest vinyl selections in the country, with an extensive back catalogue and limited edition colour pressings. The CD racks span many genres and include what the shop calls the only extensive range of classical music in Ireland. Film and television fill 4K, Blu-ray and DVD sections, and merchandise runs from band T-shirts to mugs. Tower Hifi inside the Dawson Street store sells turntables and amplifiers as well as CD players and speakers. Headphones and styli come from brands such as Rega, Pro-Ject, Denon, Marantz and Yamaha. Live in-store performances and signings are a regular part of the trade. Previous visitors have included Fontaines D.C., Lankum, Bjork, Macklemore, Fall Out Boy, James Vincent McMorrow, Lisa Hannigan and Shane MacGowan. The shop also takes part in Record Store Day, and staff are on hand for advice on what to buy and how to set up a home sound system.
69 South Great George's Street, Dublin
Music school and shop — instruments, lessons, and traditional Irish music sessions. The heart of Dublin's music education.
Best for Music school.
Neighbourhood walks
Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.
ORBIS city intelligence
Dublin’s best shops are conversational, but their charm is built on editorial substance. A bookseller places voices in relation, a design shop keeps the maker visible, a textile specialist names fibre and mill, and a jeweller translates story into material and future service.
The city is compact enough for these voices to overlap, which is both its pleasure and its risk. “Irish” can become a flattering blur over design, manufacture, material and retail. The useful purchase keeps those roles distinct.
Hodges Figgis, Books Upstairs, Irish Design Shop, STABLE of Ireland, Designist and Teeling Whiskey Distillery show the city at different scales: institutional bookselling, independent literary culture, maker-led retail, textile editing, accessible contemporary design and an active urban distillery.
Buy books with a reason for being chosen in Dublin; Irish textiles whose fibre, weave and production place are named; contemporary jewellery with clear metal, stone and service information; small design objects where the maker remains visible; whiskey understood through production and maturation; and chocolate or food products whose agricultural origin is not confused with the place of transformation.
Dublin is less convincing when the purchase is only Celtic shorthand. Knots, green packaging, literary quotations and the word heritage can all be delightful, but they should not substitute for maker, material or function.
Hodges Figgis at 56–58 Dawson Street is the city’s broad institutional reference, with particular strength in Irish interest and the ability to compare several editions under one roof. Its historic name does not make every title independent or local; the value lies in range and the bookseller’s ability to navigate it.
Books Upstairs offers the more intimate counterpoint. Ask for a contemporary Irish novel, poetry collection, small-press title or work that explains the city without flattering it. The Winding Stair adds another layer to Dublin’s literary geography, but its bookshop and restaurant functions should not be treated as one undifferentiated recommendation.
At Irish Design Shop, the useful unit is the named designer-maker. Read the card: who designed the object, who made it, where, from what and by which process? A shop can be an excellent editor without being the maker of everything it sells.
STABLE of Ireland specialises in Irish textiles and accessories from its Westbury Mall shop. What matters is whether a scarf is wool, cashmere, linen or a blend; where the yarn came from; where it was woven or knitted; and how the finish should be cleaned. “Irish linen” and “Irish design” are not self-explanatory manufacturing claims.
Designist at 68 South Great George’s Street mixes Irish and European goods. That curatorial honesty is a strength. A clever object does not need to pretend to be locally made; the label should simply make origin and authorship legible.
Chupi operates a large flagship in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre and offers appointment-led engagement and wedding-ring consultations. ESL Jewellery at 2 Chatham Street presents another current Dublin jewellery door. In both cases, romance should be translated into specifications: metal fineness, weight, stone identity and treatment, natural or laboratory-grown status, setting, sizing, warranty, repair and lead time.
The city story does not settle manufacture. Identify who designed the piece, where casting, setting and finishing occurred and who will perform future resizing or repair.
Yes, but it divides into two experiences. Celtic Whiskey Shop is a specialist retailer where several producers can be compared. Teeling is a distillery visit in the Liberties, with official tours running daily and requiring a distinct time block.
At the shop, compare category, age statement, cask history, bottling strength and price. At the distillery, use the production context to understand the bottle rather than to justify a premium automatically. Check duty and luggage before buying more than one.
The Proper Chocolate Company makes bean-to-bar chocolate in Dublin but no longer needs to be treated as a standalone city-centre shop. Its official stockist list includes Designist and other Dublin retailers. Read cocoa origin, percentage, ingredients and batch information; Dublin is the place of transformation, not the origin of the cacao.
Bread 41 is a bakery experience rather than a luggage strategy. Buy what will be eaten promptly. George’s Street Arcade is useful for comparison and atmosphere, but each stall requires its own origin and condition judgment.
A useful maker card does more than attach a name. It identifies the maker’s role, the material, the process and the place where the relevant work occurred. For a ceramic object, that may mean designer, potter, clay body, forming and firing. For a print, it may mean artist, printer, process, paper and edition. For a scarf, it may mean designer, yarn, mill, weave and finishing.
The absence of one detail need not invalidate a modest purchase, but the language should remain honest. “Designed in Ireland,” “made in Ireland,” “made from Irish material” and “selected by an Irish retailer” are different achievements. Dublin’s best shops make the distinction feel informative rather than defensive.
Irish Design Shop foregrounds named makers; STABLE builds a more concentrated textile argument; Designist mixes Irish and European objects through a wider contemporary edit. None of these models is inherently superior. The question is what value the shop adds and whether that value is described accurately.
An editor can discover, compare and explain makers the traveller would not find alone. A retailer can provide returns, packing and continuity. A workshop can alter or repair. The purchase becomes stronger when the buyer knows which relationship will remain available after the bag leaves Dublin.
Antiquities, archaeological fragments and protected cultural material are not categories for improvisation. A seller’s confidence, an old surface or a story of family ownership is not lawful provenance. When an object’s value depends on claimed antiquity, require specialist documentation that establishes ownership, legal sale and export; without it, leave the object where it is.
The same caution applies to wildlife materials and unlabelled stones. Dublin's contemporary craft and design shops sell work with documented makers and legal supply chains. There is no editorial or cultural virtue in choosing the object least able to explain how it reached the counter.
Begin with appointments that require sustained attention: jewellery consultation, a distillery tour booking, or a fitting that needs measurement and discussion. These are well scheduled in the morning, before fatigue narrows the ability to compare specifications.
Afternoon hours can accommodate browsing: books, textiles and design objects reward an unhurried pace. Dublin's central streets are compact enough to walk between several categories, but the walk should not be treated as permission to compress the decision.
Irish retail hours vary by day and season, and some independent shops use split schedules or close earlier than department stores. Confirm the exact door and hours on the day of travel, then leave space around the appointment. A bookseller visited in a rush is a missed opportunity; a jeweller consulted while watching the clock is a risk.
Dawson Street, Grafton Street and the Creative Quarter form a dense central system for books, textiles, design and jewellery. The Liberties is a separate whiskey appointment. The north side adds The Winding Stair and another relationship to the river. Dublin’s walkability should not be used as an excuse to overload the day; serious jewellery and distillery visits each need their own pace.
A consequential ring, an expensive textile or a bottle chosen for collection rather than drinking should survive a quiet review away from the counter. Read the specification without the maker story being retold. Compare total price, service, transport and the alternative you nearly chose. Dublin’s conversational warmth should clarify judgment, not replace it.
The return visit is especially valuable in a compact city. A book or small design object can be bought with confidence in one encounter; a commission benefits from sleeping on measurements, materials and purpose. The shop that welcomes a considered return is offering a more useful form of hospitality than the shop that turns intimacy into urgency.
The centre makes several very different categories appear to belong to one effortless walk. Books, jewellery, design, whiskey and food can indeed sit within a small radius, but they demand different forms of attention. A jeweller needs time for specification and future service; a bookseller rewards an unhurried browse; a design shop asks the buyer to distinguish maker from editor; a distillery visit is an appointment with production rather than another retail stop.
Compact geography should reduce travel, not compress judgment. The best Dublin day contains fewer categories than the map makes possible.
Nationality is the beginning of the description. The useful next nouns are ceramicist, weaver, illustrator, goldsmith, furniture maker, publisher, mill, studio and retailer. Establish which of those roles belongs to the name on the label and which were performed elsewhere. A shop can create genuine value through selection, commissioning and explanation without claiming to have made everything it sells.
Specificity also appears in material and use. Wool chosen for an Atlantic climate, a print that responds to contemporary Dublin rather than generic Celtic ornament, or jewellery whose symbolism is accompanied by precise metal and service information can carry place without turning place into costume.
Dublin retail is generous with stories. Keep the parts that can be carried forward: the maker’s name, studio location, fibre, process, edition, hallmark, cask, cocoa origin, repair contact or reading recommendation. A good conversation should produce a clearer object, not merely a warmer memory of the counter.
Write down names before leaving the shop. Many Irish makers work at a scale where future contact is possible, but only when the buyer has retained enough information to find the right person again.
Listen for the living voice behind the object, then identify its role. Is this the maker speaking, the designer, the retailer, the editor, the distiller, the publisher or the person who will service the piece later? Dublin’s warmth is real, but the best purchase survives after the story is written down in material detail.
The Dublin purchase worth remembering keeps its voice after the conversation ends. Maker, material, edition and care should remain legible when the object is far from the shop that introduced it.
For the longer argument, read Dublin: Buy the Living Voice.
Dublin offers several different ways to bring home something connected with Ireland. A book can introduce a contemporary writer; a scarf can connect you with a particular weaver. The distinction matters when choosing between a useful purchase and a gift whose connection with the city ends at its packaging.
Start with the category you actually want to buy. For reading, Books Upstairs provides Irish literature and journals alongside a wider book selection. Irish Design Shop brings craft objects into one shop, while STABLE of Ireland specialises in textiles. These are different starting points, not interchangeable stops on a souvenir circuit 123.
For a first visit focused on gifts, begin with Drury Street and South Great George's Street. Irish Design Shop lists its address at 41 Drury Street; Designist publishes 68 South Great George's Street. Compare their selections before deciding if you want a named maker's work or a practical gift from a wider range. Designist explicitly sells Irish and European products, so Irish retail does not imply Irish manufacture 24.
If books are the priority, make Books Upstairs on D'Olier Street your anchor. Its catalogue separates Irish poetry from Irish history and politics, helping a visitor choose by subject rather than cover design. The journal selection offers another approach: a current issue introduces several writers without requiring a commitment to one author's entire book 1.
For textile shopping, distinguish a finished piece from a project. STABLE sells scarves and household linen, while This is Knit supplies yarn and knitting equipment from Powerscourt Townhouse. Someone choosing a gift for a knitter may find a carefully matched yarn purchase more useful than another finished scarf 35.
Books Upstairs lists contemporary fiction alongside small literary journals, including The Stinging Fly and The Dublin Review. These offer different reading experiences: a novel sustains one voice, whereas a journal lets a reader encounter several forms and subjects. Neither requires buying a decorative edition of a writer you already own 1.
Explain what you enjoy reading and what you would like to understand about Ireland. A request for a recent novel about family life will produce a different conversation from a request about political history. If the book is a gift, describe the recipient's interests rather than asking for an undefined Irish classic.
Check the edition before paying, especially if you collect translated literature or already own a paperback version. A different jacket may contain the same text. For a journal, look through the contents and sample a contribution; the point is to discover writing you want to read after the journey.
Irish Design Shop's range includes ceramics as well as jewellery and textiles. Its website distinguishes its jewellery collections from other product categories, which is a useful prompt to ask who made the particular object in your hand. Do not assume that every item in a maker-led shop comes from the same workshop 2.
Designist is an alternative when the intended use matters more than buying from one maker. Its catalogue includes stationery and books alongside homewares and small gifts. The shop's own description acknowledges both Irish and European design; that makes it suitable for comparison without inventing a local-production claim 4.
For a ceramic gift, compare the object's dimensions with the space available at home. Ask about its intended use and care before choosing it for food or drink. A small piece with a clear maker attribution may be easier to transport and remember than a large object selected mainly for its display impact.
STABLE separates scarves by fibre, including linen and wool, and also offers table linen and blankets. Begin with how the recipient will use the piece. A lightweight scarf and a substantial throw solve different problems even when their colours look similar on a shelf 3.
Read the fibre composition on the specific item. If Irish production matters to the purchase, ask where that piece was woven or knitted, rather than treating the shop's location as the answer. Keep its care information with the gift so the recipient does not have to reconstruct it later.
At This is Knit, the catalogue distinguishes yarn weight and includes a collection from Irish producers. Bring the intended pattern if you have one. Check the amount required and whether the available yarn suits the pattern before choosing by colour alone 5.
A gift for an experienced knitter needs a little information from the recipient. Their preferred projects and fibre preferences matter more than the size of the ball band. If those details are unknown, avoid presenting a random quantity as a complete project.
Chupi offers engagement and wedding rings, with separate natural-diamond and lab-grown-diamond categories. Its site also offers appointments and custom engagement rings. These distinctions are reasons to prepare a brief before a consultation rather than decide everything at the counter 6.
Write down the intended use, approximate budget and any constraints on wear. Ask for the specification of the actual piece being considered, including the metal and the stone description. Compare the service terms for that purchase rather than assuming an advertised policy covers every alteration or custom order.
A short visit can help narrow a preference without becoming an order. If the piece needs adjustment or production after you leave Dublin, establish the next steps directly with the seller. This guide does not promise that a commission can be completed during a holiday.
Brookwood Pottery describes its own stoneware tableware and pottery classes, alongside work by other Irish craftspeople. Its shop and studio are in Marino, outside the central group described above. Make that journey because pottery interests you, rather than adding it as an incidental stop between city-centre shops 7.
Compare a mug's shape and handle with how you drink at home. For a serving bowl, consider its weight when full, not just how it looks empty. Ask the maker or shop about the particular glaze and care requirements; do not infer them from another item in the collection.
Classes and buying a finished object are separate activities. Check the current arrangements directly if you want to take part in a session. Nothing here assumes that a visitor can join a class without booking.
Teeling Whiskey Distillery offers visits to its working Dublin distillery, with booking linked from the official brand website. Treat that as a separate activity rather than another quick shop browse. A visitor interested in production may value the explanation even without buying a bottle 8.
When comparing bottles, read the specific label rather than relying only on the distillery name. Note the style and bottling strength, then ask how the expression differs from one you already know. For a gift, the recipient's preferences are a better starting point than an unfamiliar package with an impressive story.
Keep the maker or product name with the receipt, particularly for a piece you may want to order again. Photograph the care label if the seller permits it. For a substantial purchase, confirm the relevant service arrangements directly and retain them in writing.
Choose a manageable number of categories for the day. Dublin's central shops can support several kinds of shopping, but a ring consultation takes different attention from choosing a paperback. Leave enough time to return to the item you preferred after seeing the alternatives.
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