FLOWERS, CHOCOLATES, vouchers for spa treatments or simply breakfast in bed may top of the list of treats for tomorrow.
But Mother’s Day gifts with a difference are on sale at a head shop in Kilkenny.
Yesterday, a sign outside the shop exhorted passersby to “Celebrate Mother’s Day with a gift from the Hemporium” in a special promotion offering a “30 per cent discount”.
The shop featured a window display with a traditional Mother’s Day card surrounded by a selection of glass bongs ranging from €40 to €55. Also known as a water pipe, a bong is used to smoke cannabis, tobacco or other substances. Its construction is similar to that of a traditional Middle Eastern hookah and is designed to “cool and filter” smoke before it is inhaled through a mouthpiece.
Other products on offer included: digital pocket scales; a book titled Easy Marijuana Gardening; Alpha Male “enhancement capsules”; Happy Popper Beans; sachets of “herbal smoking mixtures”; and a “Secret Candle Safe” – a candle with a “secret metal storage compartment” designed to “hide it in plain sight”.
Sales staff, who declined to be named, initially said they were not allowed to speak to the media but then said business was “very good” and the Mother’s Day promotion was “helping”. They were planning a similar promotion for St Patrick’s Day, which would feature green merchandise. They said their customers came from every age group but must be over 18.
A male customer berated The Irish Timesfor asking questions and suggested that the media, instead of writing about head shops, should "f*** off" and "write about child abuse and other scandals".
Lunchtime shoppers on the busy, pedestrianised Kieran Street, close to a Dunnes Stores outlet, had mixed reactions to the Mother’s Day promotion. A trio of women, who said they were mothers but did not want to be named, were “shocked” by it. One said: “I don’t like the idea . . . I don’t know of any mother who would like a gift from there.”
Marianne Byrne (17), who had bought a voucher for a spa for her mother, agreed, and said she couldn’t imagine “any mother” who would like to receive a bong.
Student Colm Corcoran (17) said his mother “would be really shocked”. He was planning to buy her a CD.
But Darren Scanlon (19), who will take his mother out for a meal tomorrow, said gifts from a head shop would be more for mothers “of the young generation”. “Each to your own,” he said. “If your mother happens to like the head shop stuff, buy her a rake of it.”