8 stores · curated ORBIS register
Aran sweaters and fisherman knits feature at The Sweater Shop, a Dublin-based Irish knitwear specialist established in 1986. Galway's Planet Retro Vintage sells vintage sweaters and other unisex clothing in materials that include wool and cashmere. Aran Sweater Market offers both hand-knit and machine-knit Aran sweaters, beginning with its original shop on Inis Mór. Cable-stitch patterns and undyed báinín wool feature in the hand-knitting tradition represented by the market's Irish makers.
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 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.
Galway City Centre / Online
Vintage clothing shop on Merchants Road in Galway city centre, owned by Maggie Concannon, selling unisex pieces spanning multiple decades — sweaters, dresses, jackets, coats and accessories in suede, fur, wool, leather and cashmere, priced roughly EUR120-300.
Best for One-off vintage clothing and accessories
Planet Retro Vintage operates from Merchants Road in the centre of Galway, Ireland, and is owned by Maggie Concannon. The shop deals in vintage clothing and accessories spanning several decades, organised both by garment type — sweaters, tops, dresses, jackets and coats, gilets, vests and blazers — and by material, including suede, fur, wool, leather and cashmere, with prices generally running from about EUR120 to EUR300. Local write-ups describe the stock as leaning on one-off pieces rather than repeated stock, and the shop has carried designer vintage items, including jackets from Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. label. Alongside clothing, Planet Retro also stocks rugs and other accessories. The business runs an online shop in addition to its physical premises, offers click-and-collect, and the shop is wheelchair accessible.
Ireland
Selling hand and machine-knit Aran sweaters from Irish knitters, with its original shop on Inis Mór and further stores in Galway, Killarney and Dublin; a hand-knit sweater can take a knitter up to sixty days and roughly 100,000 stitches, using undyed báinín wool in cable-stitch patterns.
Best for Aran Sweaters, Traditional
The Aran sweater itself is a relatively modern craft: knitting historians date its development to the 1890s-1930s, when the Congested Districts Board sent fishing instructors to the Aran Islands who introduced guernsey-knitting techniques already used in Britain; island knitters adapted them using thicker local wool, arriving at the cable-stitch, cream-colored báinín style recognized today. A popular story claims each family or fisherman had a unique pattern for identifying drowned bodies; that claim has been traced to John Millington Synge's 1904 play 'Riders to the Sea' and has been rejected by knitting historians including Richard Rutt and Alice Starmore as folklore rather than documented tradition. Commercial demand took off in the 1950s-60s after the Clancy Brothers wore Aran sweaters on television, including on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Aran Sweater Market sells both hand-knit and machine or hand-loom-knit sweaters sourced from Irish knitters and designers, from its original premises in Kilronan on Inis Mór alongside stores in Galway, Killarney and Dublin. A genuine hand-knit sweater, the company says, involves roughly 100,000 stitches and can take a knitter up to sixty days to complete.
Aran Islands, Ireland
Inis Meáin runs its own knitting factory on Ireland's Aran Islands, producing luxury Irish wool knitwear. Its collections elevate traditional gansey construction with an Italian-boutique finish, all made on the island itself.
Best for Aran Knitwear, Irish Wool
Inis Meáin is one of the three Aran Islands, thirty miles off the western shore of Ireland. For centuries the women of the island knitted the fishermen's garments. Their diamonds and cables, tree of life and moss stitches echo the seas and skies around them, and the stone walls. Inis Meáin Knitting Company was founded on the island in 1976 by Tarlach de Blácam and Áine Ní Chonghaile. Tarlach, a graduate in Celtic Languages from Trinity College Dublin, had come to the island in the late sixties to steep himself in the language. Áine was a native of Inis Meáin teaching in Dublin. When the pair married in 1973 they resolved to make their home there. They first worked on projects that brought electricity and running water to the island, and a harbour. Then they equipped a small factory with six knitting machines and took on young islanders who might otherwise have emigrated. The company still designs and makes every piece in its island workshop, finishing each by hand. It chooses not to mass produce, changing the settings on its machines several times a day to make up to 50 styles a season. Yarns in wool and silk come with cashmere and alpaca, and with linen, from mills across Europe and South America. Alongside the decorated Aran styles once kept for formal wear, the house revived the plain grey and navy workwear the island women knitted for everyday use.
Westport / Ireland
Kelly's Tweeds & Knitwear has supported Irish manufacturers from its family-run shop on the Octagon in Westport since 1876, selling handknit sweaters, tunics, and millinery made in Ireland. The shop sells both from its Westport premises and through its online store, with many one-off pieces available only here.
Best for Knitwear Shop
Dominick Street / medieval quarter
This family-run shop sells hand-knitted Aran sweaters made by knitters across the west of Ireland, alongside tweed jackets, caps and rainwear. Established in 1938, it supplied the wardrobe for the film The Quiet Man.
Best for Hand-knitted Aran sweaters
Strand Street, Dingle
On Strand Street, this shop stocks Aran sweaters, blankets and accessories in Irish wool, including own-label pieces knitted in traditional stitches. The company works with Irish mills and knitters and ships woollens worldwide.
Best for Aran sweaters and Irish woollens
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