Ball gowns and costume jewellery feature at Jenny Vander, the Drury Street vintage shop established in Dublin in 1974. Its collection draws on clothing and jewellery sourced in London and Paris as well as the United States. Dublin's Om Diva places vintage clothing alongside contemporary work by more than fifty Irish-based designers and makers. On Merchants Road in Galway, Planet Retro Vintage sells unisex vintage pieces from multiple decades in materials including wool and leather.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Charlie Byrne's fills the Cornstore on Middle Street with more than 100,000 new, secondhand, bargain and antiquarian titles, with deep sections in Irish literature and history. Founded in 1989, it has grown into a mainstay of Galway's reading life.
Founded by Des and Maureen Kenny in 1940, this Galway bookseller handles new, secondhand and rare books alongside a gallery of contemporary Irish art and a bindery running since 1974. It moved from its long-time city-centre premises to a larger space on the Tuam Road.
This family-run jewellery and antiques business began at a castle above the Blackwater river in north County Cork before relocating to Kinsale. Its bench staff include GIA-trained gemologists and setters trained at houses such as Boodles and Graff, and the shop takes on bespoke ring commissions.
Best for Bespoke fine jewellery and antique pieces
An independent record shop in Douglas dealing in new and second-hand vinyl and running for over fifteen years. Stock turns over regularly across rock, metal and classic albums, from Radiohead pressings to Captain Beefheart and Santana.
Best for New and secondhand vinyl from Radiohead to Captain Beefheart and Santana
The Gallery, in a stone building at Figart, Dunfanaghy that was built in the 1840s as the Fever Hospital for Dunfanaghy Workhouse and later a national school, opened in 1968 under artist Frank Egginton and has since been run by his daughter Moira and son-in-law Alan Harley. It sells arts, crafts, antiques and jewellery.
Weir & Sons has traded from the corner of Grafton Street and Wicklow Street since 1869, its curved windows a fixture of Dublin's main shopping street. The family-run house sells fine watches and jewellery and keeps departments for antique silver, china and glass.
Best for Fine jewellery, watches and antique silver
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