Outside the shop Bike Stop Dublin on Capel Street, its co-owner Cliff Nolan is having a quick smoke. Today his shop bears little sign of what occurred a year ago, when it was looted during the rioting of November 23rd, during an evening when Dublin’s city centre became, for a number of hours, a scene of social unrest, with arson and vandalism in streets in and around O’Connell Street. A bus went on fire on O’Connell Street. Assaults were made on gardaí and members of the public.
“It was just shock. I didn’t know what to think,” says Nolan of that night. “There’s glass everywhere, a lot of the bikes are missing, and things are trashed – till, computer, phone, everything is gone, and some of the customer bikes as well.” He and business partner Pawel Naczke built a barrier and locked themselves into the Bike Stop, fearful of more looting.
Twelve months on, Nolan and Naczke are among the many Dublin retailers once more preparing for Christmas. On a visit to several businesses across the city centre, it’s clear that many retailers have moved on after the riots. They have learned that there’s a certain resilience to Dubliners, with shoppers quickly proving their support. But they can see clearly too that the city still has its challenges, whether it’s shoplifting, what some see as a high VAT rate, or high rents and rates.
Memories remain of last December, when the city had to summon up festive cheer during a difficult time. “That was a hard month. Business was down. We couldn’t get stock in on time,” Nolan tells The Irish Times Magazine. Yet 2024 turned out to be one of Bike Stop’s best years since it opened in 2021. “People were making an effort to come to us,” says Nolan. “They’d heard about the riot and stuff like that. And we’ve a lot of return customers.”
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For Naczke, the effects of the riots lingered a long time. He also owns Vintage Dublin, a shop crammed with beautiful antique furniture on the floor below Bike Stop. He moved from Poland to Ireland when he was 19. Now 40, he says the riots made him feel stressed and unsafe for months afterwards.
“It was the first time ever I was thinking: I am an immigrant. I am not born here. I am not from here. And if they want to sacrifice me as an example of ‘another immigrant’, I could be the target. Even though I’m 100 per cent rooted here, I pay heavy taxes, I run shops and I bought a house.” But he adds: “I know what happened doesn’t represent Irish people.”
Still, he wondered if it was all worth it: working hard in Ireland only to feel unsafe. “Maybe I just go and work in a wine bar in the south of Spain, rather than trying hard,” he remembers thinking. The support of his wife and Nolan helped, as did the outpouring of concern from customers, and over time he began to feel safer in the city. “I definitely see Dublin being a little bit safer. I don’t see many TikTok or X clips about machetes on Talbot Street or tourists being beaten,” Naczke says.
Nolan says Capel Street, which was pedestrianised in 2022, has “an exciting but sometimes nerve-racking energy about it”, with a vibrant nightlife thanks to its restaurants and pubs. While he’s a fan of its new benches, he says they are often used by people drinking, or using drugs. He sees drug dealing openly taking place on the street. While there was a stronger Garda presence in the city centre following the riots, Nolan and all the retailers The Irish Times Magazine speak to say they felt this returned to pre-riots level within a few months. So when asked about his hopes for 2025, Nolan appeals for more gardaí. “Garda on patrol more consistently, and forever, not just for a small period. I think it would make a big difference,” he says.
A few streets over from Bike Stop Dublin on Lower Liffey Street, beauty therapist Neelu White of Neelu’s Beauty Salon is on a break between clients. Originally from India, she came to Ireland in 1983 with her brother. “I only came here for three weeks,” she laughs. A conversation at the Indian-Irish Cultural Club led to two years of teaching sitar in UCC. (She has a Master’s in classical Indian music and another in English.) She used her free time to do a beauty course, which ended up having a big impact on the eyebrows of Dublin. “I brought threading to Ireland,” she says.
She’s still in Ireland 41 years on. While Dún Laoghaire has her heart, as it’s where she first opened her business, White has been based on Lower Liffey Street for two years. During the riots she had to take shelter in a nearby Chinese restaurant along with several other people. “The city centre is coming back to itself,” says White. “We had a rough year. With the riots and a lot of the drugs and the homeless issue, people were scared. My clients didn’t want to come into the city centre.”
But she gestures to the revamped street outside her premises, saying that since the summer, things have improved. “Dublin City Council is amazing. Look at the plants on the street – they have made it so beautiful and so inviting. Now there’s such tourism here. People are enjoying coming into town. Before that, people were scared of being attacked.”
White says she hasn’t experienced racism in Ireland. “If Irish people were [racist], I wouldn’t have any business. I don’t think the Irish people are, but every country has a few bad people,” she says. She describes herself and other people who have moved to Ireland from abroad as guests who should respect the country. “I would say Irish people are very kind, and you have to return to them kindness. I have a son with special needs and I’ve had such support from my clients.”
But the far-right undertones of the rioting did worry her. “Being coloured was a bit scary, because of what happened and how they behaved. But I had trust in the Irish.” Some of White’s clients are nervous about coming into the city, and are doing more shopping in the suburbs, she says. But many customers have stayed loyal, and walk-ins have begun returning in recent months.
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Like the other business owners, White believes more visible policing would deter criminal activity: recently, someone damaged the outside of her business with a hammer. She’d like measures such as cheaper car-parking fees to make city visits less expensive for clients.
Across the Liffey in Books Upstairs on D’Olier Street, punters are relaxing in the bookshop’s busy cafe. Manager Louisa Earls’s father, Maurice Earls, set up the business with his friend Enda O’Doherty in 1978, and it relocated to D’Olier Street almost a decade ago. She is anticipating a particularly busy time for the shop this Christmas. “November is like the calm before the storm,” she says over coffee.
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“The day after the riots, it was really, really quiet in the shop, really quiet on the street. That was definitely a scary day. But after a day or two it recovered,” she remembers. “We had a good December, and we were very relieved that people were seemingly after a short time able to feel good about coming to town again.” The shop wasn’t damaged, but a lot of Books Upstairs customers reached out over social media afterwards to show their concern. “It was slightly reminiscent of the conscientious consumerism that was on display during the pandemic,” says Earls.
Cost of living is a concern for Books Upstairs. “You’re fearful that if the economy takes a turn, that things might fall apart. And I think we felt that way last year too,” says Earls. “We are just trying to make ourselves as viable and sustainable a business as we can.”
Earls believes shoppers are not easily scared off from their annual traditions, whether that be a national one like Christmas shopping in Dublin on December 8th or another family tradition. “Despite what happened, I feel like people were quite keen to say ‘we’re still doing our thing – we’re still doing December the way that we do December’,” says Earls, adding: “A bookshop is a lot of people’s happy place.”
One of the shops badly looted on November 23rd, 2023, was the Asics store across the bridge from Books Upstairs on O’Connell Street Lower. Business partners Sunil Shah and Paul Gallagher, who co-own the Asics store and the Skechers franchise in Dublin, were at a black-tie affair that night in London when word began coming through about the riots. The pair immediately changed their flights home.
I think the north side for many years hasn’t received the love that it deserves
— Richard Guiney, chief executive of Dublin Town
“We got there midmorning [the next day] and the first thing we said is: these boys are not beating us. We’ll be open in a week,” says Gallagher. “The staff looked at me and said ‘how will we do that?’. I said I don’t know, but we will.” He was true to his word. “There is a certain resilience in Dublin people that is a hallmark of their character,” says Gallagher. “And I admire that. And I said: Dublin people will be back out shopping next week so we want to be here to have a shop for them next week.”
That resilience is evident in the figures – Asics is up 20 per cent year-on-year. Like Nolan at Bike Stop, Gallagher puts this partly down to post-riots publicity, which increased knowledge of the specialist shoe store. He also feels that shoppers sent out a message to the gardaí and the Minister of Justice Helen McEntee about the rioters: “The people of Dublin do not want to be dictated to by these gurriers.”
But Gallagher describes shoplifting occurring regularly on O’Connell Street today. “There’s not enough gardaí on the street,” he says, maintaining that people feel there are “no consequences” if they shoplift or get aggressive with staff. He believes that the Government prioritising “over-the-shop” living would help decrease antisocial behaviour. “I was in Amsterdam last week at a Skechers conference and if you look around, every store has beautiful apartments over it,” he says. “Within a mile of O’Connell Street, 40-50 units could be used for over-the-shop accommodation.”
There are several recent or imminent policy changes that retailers feel will affect them, including changes to paid sick leave, the minimum wage increasing to €13.50 from January 1st, and pension auto-enrolment beginning in September 2025. “You can’t put wage increases on businesses where margins are tight and expect everything to come out smelling of roses,” says Gallagher. He’s looking for more Government support for retailers, such as a reduction in the 23 per cent VAT rate. “They need to understand they have all this extra money from Apple, they need to fund businesses,” he says.
Footfall is down in Dublin city by more than 2 per cent to date this year, though it has improved since June, says Richard Guiney, chief executive officer of Dublin Town, which aims to promote the city as a retail and hospitality destination. “The feedback we have is the spend per customer isn’t as strong as people would like. So it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, and a lot of traders are feeling under pressure,” he says.
Dublin Town was worried about retail after the riots, but last December exceeded its expectations. “That was primarily due to a very good Garda presence on the street, a lot of on-street entertainment. People felt good. I think we do need a good Christmas again this year – we would like to see a greater Garda presence,” says Guiney. Dublin Town has made this request to An Garda Síochána and the Government and received “positive feedback”.
In a statement to The Irish Times Magazine, An Garda Síochána said that it “is committed to ensuring that people are kept safe” as we approach Christmas. Under what’s called Operation Citizen, it said gardaí across Dublin city continue to conduct high-visibility patrols on foot, bicycle and in Garda vehicles at locations where it’s been identified that antisocial behaviour and public order offences occur. “Enhanced uniformed Garda resources” will also be deployed over the holiday season, it said.
“The main core issue is that people don’t feel as safe in Dublin as we would like them to feel,” says Guiney, adding that it’s not just a matter of increasing Garda numbers. “We also need to look at how we assist the more vulnerable members of our society. And the uses of space in Dublin, bringing in new uses, bringing in residential uses, and a holistic approach to planning.”
In the aftermath of the Dublin riots, a Dublin City Taskforce was established by the Government to look at the measures required to rejuvenate Dublin city centre, north and south. Guiney believes its 10 “big move” recommendations – which includes the deployment of more gardaí – would transform Dublin if implemented.
The rioting on November 23rd began on the north side of the city centre. “Being honest, I think the north side for many years hasn’t received the love that it deserves. I think if we can get the north side of the city right it will make a very big difference to the whole of the city,” says Guiney, adding: “I think we can better manage some of the social challenges and our support for vulnerable people.”
Temple Bar might be particularly loved by tourists in search of a pint, but it’s also home to many independent retailers. Terence Murphy-Jones runs Big Smoke Vintage and Dublin Vintage Factory with his husband David. On the night of the riots, Big Smoke Vintage in Merchant’s Arch had its windows smashed by rioters. Amid fears of rioting occurring again, Temple Bar’s vintage stores set up a WhatsApp group. “If there are ever problems or if another store runs into something, all of the other stores will be notified,” says Murphy-Jones, who’s been in the vintage business in Dublin for 11 years.
He says things have improved since last November. “You can definitely see people are starting to shop a lot more. Temple Bar has picked back up where it left off.” They were scared, however, that they’d lose customers travelling in from outside of Dublin. “On Saturdays you can see people that we haven’t seen for months. I do think people are putting trust into the city again,” says Murphy-Jones.
But he says that high rents and rates are an issue for retailers. “They’re the things that are making things close around us.” While he says the minimum wage increase is “brilliant for workers”, he adds: “But it’s also really hard for small independent businesses like myself, because we then need to make what we’re paying them. We need to increase our sales.” He calls for the Government to help small businesses manage this with grants or rate cuts.
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Not too far from Temple Bar is the quirky gift and collectables shop Padison and Yule on College Green. Paddy Curran who runs the shop with his wife Alison. He believes the “vibe is good” in the city. “The city’s going in the right direction,” he says.
But like others, Curran wants to see a greater Garda presence on the streets. “There should be more horses going up and down, guards on bikes,” he says.
The cost-of-living crisis has affected people’s ability to spend. “The higher spend isn’t there as much as it used to be,” says Curran. Like other retailers, he feels this could have an impact on Christmas sales. “When they spend, they’ll spend big, but it could be concentrated,” predicts Curran. “The concentration might be down to four or five weeks of high spend, rather than six or eight weeks.”
Curran also feels there’s not enough differentiation between large retail giants, who might find it easier to absorb the 23% VAT rate, and smaller independent businesses. “And when you’re a small business, that couple of per cent makes a huge difference.”
A year on from the Dublin riots, the city still bears scars. But retailers are determined to keep going despite facing growing economic challenges. And even with the calls for more gardaí amid safety fears, the public are showing they want to spend time in the city centre. Research by Dublin Town shows a desire among people “to reclaim their city”, says Guiney.
Indeed, a recent event organised by Dublin Town, called Dublin by Night, saw almost 40,000 people enjoying two nights of free outdoor events on both sides of the Liffey. “The atmosphere was terrific – it shows what we can do,” says Guiney.
