Shopping in Dublin is awsome!  On Grafton Street and O'Connell Street buying and selling is a serious business and is as much about seeing, being seen and socializing, as it is about shopping.  The O'Connell Street area is the more ordinary, high-street end of the market where you will find cut-price shops, chain stores and street markets.  Clery's department store and Eason's bookshop are tow of the highlights.  South of the river you will find the smarter outlets and tourists shops, as well as a great range of alternative or out of the ordinary shops in Temple Bar.  This is the place if you are after club gear and street fashion.

On pedestrianised Grafton Street you will find Brown Thomas, the classy department store, and just off Grafton Street the 200 year old Powerscourt Town House, which has been converted into a shopping mall with a number of expensive clothes shops.  You will find many shops touting 'typically irish' goods aimed at tourists, mainly wool, ceramics and crystals.  Some of these are very overpriced, but you can still find bargains.  A good place to shop for Irish goods is the Kilkenny Design Centre on Nassau Street, which stocks high quality Irish goods, such as linen and knitware, as well as crystal and ceramics.  You can find real bargains here when the sales are on.  If your taste is for knitting in natural fibres try Cleo Limited on Kildare Street.  The Blarney Woollen Mills on Nassau Street offer a more traditional range of Irish of Irish crystal and china, plus the usual wollen sweaters and linen blouses and shirts and you can find some real bargains if you have the time to look around.  The House of Ireland, also on Nassau Street has fine Irish crystal ranging from Belleek to Waterford, as well as the sweetly sentimental Lladro ceramics. 

If cashmere is your thing, try Monaghans.  The Design Centre is the place where talented local jewellers showcase their work, but don't expect to find any bargains here.  Weir and Sons on Grafton Street sells antique silver and jewellery, as well as a good selection of Irish crystal.  If genealogy is your thing you should visit Clans of Ireland on Kildare Street, they are able to trace the location and significance of most Irish family names.

If your tast is for antiques try O'Sullivan Antiques on Francis Stree in The Liberties.  It is one of the best established antique shops, specialising in objets d'art and furniture.  Alexander Antiques on Molesworth Street has a wide range of antique clocks, pictures and period furniture.

If you fancy going clothes shopping, Brown Thomas on Grafton Street offers smart designer wear from Irish labels such as Paul Costelloe, Louise Kennedy and John Rocha, while the Irish Fashion Design Centre in the Powerscourt Town House has a changing range of stalls by young designers who work mainly in natural materials, such as linen, silk and wool.  If you like retro and second hand clothes you should head for Temple Bar, you can find some great stuff there.

If you want to take home some traditional Irish music, Claddagh Records stocks a good range of traditional Irish music, as does Celtic Note on Nassau Street.  Comet Records in Temple Bar sells new Indie CDs and second hand records as well as providing information on current bands and where you can see them perform.