Inclement conditions no impediment as crowds flock to Christmas market in Dublin's Fitzwilliam Square, writes MARIE O'HALLORAN
IT MAY have been cabin fever. Perhaps the slight but definitely very brief thaw helped.
Either way, the crowds filled the newly opened Christmas market at Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. And a week’s experience of snow and ice was definitely needed to get past the entrances which doubled as skating rinks.
The market, which runs daily from noon to 8pm during the week and from 10am on Saturday and Sunday until December 23rd, had a few other weather-related glitches.
Scheduled to start on Friday weather conditions delayed the arrival of the chalets that most of the stall holders use and which run around the entire square.
A merry-go-round and another carousel in the centre offer children’s entertainment.
It could well be said to be a foodies’ market, for many of the stalls offered delicacies like herbed potatoes and sausage, Japanese miso soup and sushi, and deep-fried doughnuts.
Haruko Okamoto from Japan, a regular at the People’s Park market in Dún Laoghaire, was selling Japanese sweets and cakes along with the sushi, and soup which had a number of takers.
There are soup stalls, a bratwurst sausage stall with a gluten-free option, a sweets and olives stand and a stall selling lavender-filled hotwater bottles and teddies that you heat in the microwave.
There were none of the twinkling lights that litter a German Christmas market, but there was plenty of Glühwein or mulled wine, provided by All Bar None events company.
Rónán Rogerson is hopeful the market will do well and already they were doing a roaring trade in the mulled wine and non-alcoholic mulled apple drink. But business in general, he says, is bad. “People are not paying.”
All Bar None do drinks for corporate and private events. “Some Irish businesses engage you for work whether they have the money or not.
“With American companies, you put in an invoice on Monday and by Friday you’re paid. One Irish company owes us €40,000 since last year and it’s about to go under. Another owes €15,000.”
Fun Flowers, run by DIT catering student Philip Walsh, was attracting some interest. He is selling a variety of ‘just add water’ vegetable seeds in tin cans and sprouts that grow in a plastic pouch in days. He will also be supplying them to SuperValu and Superquinn.
Beside him, Posh Pinnies have an innovative offering – special aprons to keep communion dresses clean, with the option of an embroidered name and date
“The market is a great idea. Anything that will bring people into the city centre is good,” says Lorna McCourt from Blackrock, who came along with her son.
She says the “food stalls are fantastic, and the steak sandwich alone was worth coming for”.
She notes, however, that there are no wooden toys, an assumed Christmas market staple. The only wooden creations in fact are religious icons, pictures and statues being sold by the Sisters of St Elizabeth for their orphanage in Minsk, Belarus.
It’s certainly not a traditional Christmas market, but then again it’s not a traditional Irish Christmas either.