![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791543018_705_Emer-McLysaght-3564-133x133.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 34 mins ago\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Emer McLysaght<\/p>\n
Author and journalist<\/p>\n
MY WAKING DREAMS have been haunted for days now. It\u2019s spooky season, for sure, but it wasn\u2019t a ghoul or a goblin that caused me terror.<\/p>\n
It was the sight of the wavy roof on the new Crumlin Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy must shopping centres be so hideous?\u201d, I whispered to myself. \u201cWhy must the roofs be wacky and the exteriors grey? Why must they look dated before they\u2019re even finished?\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Crumlin Shopping Centre is a welcome addition to the area, don\u2019t get me wrong. It\u2019s revitalising a space and 1970s brutalist style fa\u00e7ade that, while iconic and the inspiration for one of Ireland\u2019s finest parody accounts<\/a>, desperately needed a revamp.<\/p>\n The new centre will house a Fancy Dunnes, a gym and a medical centre atop the old retail burial ground of Tuthills and Texas Fried Chicken.<\/p>\n ALTU Architects\n<\/p>\n The new design is standard shopping centre fare. Lots of glass, lots of steel, and the wavy roof which the architects say<\/a> will \u201cserve as a distinct visual landmark for the new building\u201d.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t miss it, that\u2019s for sure. And isn\u2019t that the point, I suppose? Shopping centres by their very nature are utilitarian and profit-driven. It makes sense that they tend to resemble airports, and vice versa.<\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n There is something inherently Celtic Tiger about so much shopping centre design (even the ones that were built before she roared). CMAT chose the Omni Shopping Centre as the backdrop for the music video for her song Eurocountry, a suitably bleak vista for a song that savages \u201call the big boys \/ All the Berties\/ All the envelopes\u201d of the banking crash.<\/p>\n Longford Town Centre, finished in 2009 with a trademark wave on its fa\u00e7ade, has lain empty ever since<\/a>. It was a similar tale in Naas<\/a> with a derelict \u201cnewly built\u201d shopping centre sitting idle for years in the middle of the town. It was purchased from Nama and has undergone some regeneration in the form of Naas Plaza, but ultimately remains an eyesore.\n<\/p>\n A matter of quality<\/p>\n I completely agree with the wringing of hands<\/a> over the redesign of Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre. The 1980s faux Victorian Dublin landmark is to be replaced by another \u201cmodern\u201d monolith, with current plans resembling one of the many, many hotels and co-living spaces erected around the city over the past decade. The current building may not be authentic, but it is interesting. It has the potential to be beautiful, inside and out. It doesn\u2019t have a wavy roof or some hideous flock-of-seagulls-esque protruding glass embellishments.<\/p>\n Leah Farrell \/ RollingNews.ie \/ RollingNews.ie\n<\/p>\n Sometimes ugly = character. Phibsboro Shopping Centre is a 1960s brutalist eyesore, but that\u2019s what makes it special. It too is getting a makeover<\/a>, but with slightly more care being given to retaining its unique properties. The iconic tower will remain (as another hotel, yay) and the overall finished look will be at least reminiscent of what currently stands.<\/p>\n I have a soft spot too for The Square in Tallaght, hideous as it is. When it opened in 1990 it was Ireland\u2019s largest shopping centre. I was a nipper in a nearby primary school in Springfield and had never seen anything like the glamour of the glass pyramid rising into the sky.<\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n My experiences of shopping centres up to then had been limited to the upper level of Tallaght Town Centre and the Dunnes in Kilnamanagh, where my father would smoke a Gold Bond while pushing the trolley. President Mary Robinson officiated the opening of The Square, and we got the day off school to go and gawp. It had a waterfall! A waterfall, inside the shopping centre! I\u2019ll never forget my first go on a travelator, or my first visit to Crazy Prices. The centre was almost impossible to navigate, and losing one\u2019s mother a real concern at all times. Precious memories.<\/p>\n Now, as a Dublin 12 adjacent resident I\u2019m admittedly excited for what the new Crumlin Shopping Centre will offer inside its undulating glass frontage. I know the architects have done their best with whatever budget and resources are available and with the limitations imposed by the requirements of shopping centre design. I just don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever get over yet another wavy roof.<\/p>\n Caution of the week<\/p>\n Very few people look good with a microfringe. You might see the latest pictures and videos of Saoirse Ronan with her new haircut<\/a> and think \u201chey, she\u2019s from Carlow, maybe I too could pull off a tiny little fringe\u201d.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do it. She might be Irish, but she has years of Hollywood glamour training and a great set of cheekbones. If it\u2019s already too late, and you\u2019ve gone for the chop, it\u2019ll grow. I promise, it\u2019ll grow.<\/p>\n Go and see<\/p>\n Animals at the Abbey Theatre, written by Dan Colley and based on the short stories of Blindboy Boatclub. It received some baffling reviews last week, ranging from confused to downright vicious.<\/p>\n I went in afraid it was going to be the longest three hours of my life and emerged with a face sore from laughing and a question as to whether the reviewers had even seen the same show.<\/p>\n It\u2019s wildly entertaining, thoughtful, innovative and features Liz FitzGibbon in one of the funniest performances I\u2019ve seen in Irish theatre in years, as Pamela the solicitor. Buy tickets here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Podcasts for you<\/p>\n ![\"crumlin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791543019_31_.jpeg\")
\n A mock-up of the new Crumlin Shopping Centre. ALTU Architects<\/p>\n![\"the-entrance-to-crumlin-shopping-centre-crumlin-road-dublin-once-a-thriving-centre-now-looking-derelict-dunnes-stores-are-owneroccupiers\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791543019_368_.jpeg\")
\n The old Crumlin Dunnes. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791543020_29_.jpeg\")
\n Leah Farrell \/ RollingNews.ie<\/p>\n![\"square-shopping-centre-tallaght-dublin-ireland\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791543021_199_.jpeg\")
\n The Square, Tallaght. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n