h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are two quite decent shopping centres in city centre Dublin. As those familiar with the place might expect, one ison the southside and one on the northside. The southside one, Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, is architecturally interesting, mainly from the outside: Victorian iron and glass, like a curvilinear range of glasshouses. This is not fully appreciated on the inside until you go right up to the third floor, where there are art and craft shops and public toilets, which used to be 10p and are probably now 15 cent. (For those dying to go, I suggest Hodges Figgis bookshop on Dawson Street, upstairs by the cafe. HF will not thank me for this.)
Back to the shopping centre: the shops on the first two floors (ground level and first floor) are fairly normal for a mall here: an ice cream shop, a bookshop, clothes shops, a fun-but-expensive teddy bear shop, clothes shops, a hat shop, and Dunnes Stores department store (with supermarket in the basement) reside on the ground floor, with the Cafe Kylemore (selling sausages, baked beans, eggs, chips/fries, pastries, etc) and more clothes shops mainly on the first floor. Upstairs, as I say, is a bit different, but I honestly haven't been up that far in a while, so I'll have to report back. Back on the ground floor, a wide entry hall on the corner facing Stephen's Green park and Grafton Street is frequently used as a meeting place.

Upstairs is arts and crafts - including one of the best places to buy contemporary paintings in Dublin...same sort of stuff as the art market around Merrion Square but not tourist-silly prices.

Oh, good - thanks! I should make the trip more often, then.

The Jervis Centre on Henry Street is not as interesting, but is notable for a good Marks & Spencer, a Waterstones bookshop, and many gadgety and craft shops. Foremost among these (for me) is the Gadget Shop, upstairs. This carries Fisher Space Pen refills, compasses you can put on your watch band, lava lamps, fun piggy banks, and many, many other things. One of its few faults is the intense heat in the summer - too much electric stuff in a small space. It has fast food restaurants on the uppermost level, and electronics shops on the ground floor along with M&S and Waterstones, a Sweet Factory outlet, and a Bewley's cafe beside the lift. Be warned, though: this is not a self-serve Bewleys, and you could be waiting a while.

The Ilac centre, also on the northside on Parnell Street, is run-down, but it boasts the central library for Dublin, complete with Internet-linked computers (half an hour per customer; to be booked a week in advance) and foreign language conversational groups.

Also worth mentioning, though not on the scale of malls, are the Westbury shopping centre beside the Westbury Hotel, which has another bear and toy shop; and George's Street Arcade, between George's Street (South) and Drury Street. This has knick-knack and antique clothes shops, a nice, laid-back cafe called Simon's (cinnamon bun heaven), and several secondhand booksellers and artists. One stall sells old and foreign coins.

Not actually a shopping centre, but well worth mentioning, is The Source in Temple Bar. There's all kinds of frivolous impulse-buy products here, many of which are just irresistable. Bean-bags, inflatable chairs, mirrors, lots of stuff with cow and sheep motifs and my personal favourite, the Dress-Up Lenin fridge magnets. The kind of place a less imaginative writer than me would call an Aladdin's cave. Oh bugger.

George's Arcade also has a little stall with lots of war memorabilia and prints. They have a little tray of Soviet pin badges for €1.25 and medals in a glass case, including the Order of the Red Banner and one that was issued to Allied troops occupying Berlin

Wow! I've never noticed that one!

I'd forgotten that the Jervis Centre also has a Tesco.