It used to be that the Irish would only don shades if the weather rivalled that of the Sahara, and even then there would be mutterings about the glare being a safety risk. Heaven forbid somebody would think it was a fashion statement - there was something a bit flash about sunglasses, something a bit too downtown LA for the average punter in downtown Mullingar or Belmullet. In recent years though, all that has changed, and you'd be hard put to know whether Irish eyes are smiling or not, so many of them are firmly hidden by a pair of shades, rain or shine. There is a number of reasons why this is so. There's the notion that the weather has just got better in the last 10 years, and certainly if you take St Patrick's Day as an indicator, it does seem that the Irish weather is not quite such a washout as it used to be. People started to wear shades because they realised that letting all those UVA and UVB rays leak into their eyes wasn't such a good idea, never mind the fact that all that squinting is a shortcut to wrinkles.
The Irish diaspora played its part too - a whole generation of Irish people can now swap tales of surfing in Melbourne, cruising in California and waiting tables in Waikiki, and show off photos of themselves draped over somebody else's convertible, bronzed and wearing a pair of shades, to prove it. The tan wears off on their return, but the habit of putting on sunglasses before setting foot outside the door never quite disappears
But above all our attitude towards shades has changed because our national self-image has changed. A booming economy has brought a booming confidence, and the very characteristics of shades that used to put the Irish off - they way they shout "flash", lay you open to accusations of being a poseur and even hint that maybe, just maybe, you're terribly famous - are now their most attractive qualities. We bear no grudge against the very stylish because we consider ourselves to be stylish, and we have enough money, confidence and brass neck not to care whether people think we're flasher than Charlie and his Angels put together.
Increasingly, though, not just any shades will do. Years ago, we all thought that those Reservoir Dogs-style black Rayban shades were the epitome of cool, and at the time perhaps they were. But now we want the most stylish sunglasses, the ones with labels attached, the ones we've seen Madonna or Vinnie Jones or Kate Moss wearing in magazines. Ellen MacNally of Dublin's MacNally's Opticians on the Green reports that designer sunglasses, which used to be a seasonal seller, are now selling like hotcakes all year round.
When Stella McCartney designed some aviator shades encrusted with a diamante heart for Chloe, they flew out of the shops, and her new numbers, which boast an iridescent tiger on the lenses are doing similar business for Optica in Dublin's Hibernian Way. The other design houses have learnt fast, and this year both Prada and Chanel have produced sunglass ranges that are such hot property that Optica's Donal MacNally describes women coming to the shop, trying to buy the must-have Chanel sunglasses case on its own.
Sunglasses follow fashion like everything else, and this year, the trend is for coloured lenses - not the bright yellow popularised by Ronan Keating, but deep pink, dark red or peacock blue. Frames are thick, glancing back to 1950s style with more than a nod of acknowledgement to Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn. Aviator shades are still in, but the real money is on glasses styled on metalworkers' masks - Prada look set to sweep the field here.
Of course not everybody is willing or able to spend the kind of money that these glases cost; our real-life models were a little surprised by the cost of their glasses - but we took to the streets to see what you'd look like in the best that money can buy.
