After almost two decades on Francis Street in Dublin, Niall Mullen Antiques will be closing its doors at the end of this year, marking “the end of an era, but also the beginning of a new chapter”.
Niall Mullen Antiques has a wide range of items from the 18th century through to the late 20th century.
They are deeply grateful for the support of their “incredible customers, friends, and the Dublin community who have made these years so special”.
The store also announced a final sale to celebrate their journey.
Speaking about the challenges facing local Irish shops and what the future might look like for Dublin city, owner Niall Mullen spoke about supporting what keeps Dublin unique.
“We have to choose as a society, what is it that we want. We have probably lost the community element of our towns, villages, banks, post offices, everything has closed down,” he said.
“You can see that Dublin is changing, the generics, the Starbucks etc. are becoming much more prevalent.
“There’s a danger that traditional retail will go away. In some instances, several generations of it. It’s becoming too difficult to compete with the multi-nationals.
“When you drive around, when you open the newspapers, you listen to the radio, everything is about the generics. The Black Friday that just happened, you could see it’s the same companies over and over again.
“What is it that we want for our towns, villages, streets in Dublin particularly? It’s changing and there’s no sense of anybody making anything in Ireland.
“We’re allowing it to go too far. I think it goes to the heart of government policy. They’re being very weak and too open to allow change too quickly.
“You’re losing a huge amount of knowledge, you’re losing personality, it just won’t be as pleasant a place.”
