Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is a

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

located in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

which comprises 80 stores and 20 restaurants. The centre opened on and is located near the junction of the M50 motorway and N4 road closely surrounded by Lucan to the west, Palmerstown Village to the east and Clondalkin to the south. The centre was a scaled-down replacement for a much larger complex once mooted for the site, known as Quarryvale, the development of which was highly controversial.

Tenants

Anchor tenants at the centre are Ireland's largest

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores is an Irish multinational retail chain that primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. It was founded by Ben Dunne (businessman, born 1908), Ben Dunne in 1944. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain al ...

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

, and Ireland's largest

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

. In 2010 large H&M and New Look fashions stores opened in the centre of the mall. The centre is home to Vue Dublin cinemas (formerly

Ster Century Ster Century is a Slovak cinema company, formerly known as City Cinemas. The brand was formerly used in the UK, Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as a division of the South African cinema chain, Ster-Kinekor. Their UK head ...

Dublin). One of the anchor tenants at the time of opening was Ireland's only branch of C&A, which closed when the parent firm exited the UK market. This unit was taken by

. An associated retail park, The Retail Park, Liffey Valley, is nearby, with several warehouse-style stores, these include;

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

, MaxiZoo,

Carpetright Carpetright is a British retailer founded in 1988 by Lord Philip Harris. Since July 2024, the retailer has been a division of Tapi Carpets which purchased the Carpetright brand, intellectual property, and some locations from administration ...

, The Range,

Party City New AmScan PC LLC formerly, Party City Holdco Inc. is an American chain of party supply stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City's headquarters are in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Party City was the largest ...

Currys Currys (branded as Currys PC World between 2010 and 2021) is a British electrical retailer and aftercare service provider operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, specialising in white goods, consumer electronics, computers and mobile phon ...

Renovations

In February 2015, Liffey Valley announced that it was to begin a €26 million expansion of the shopping centre. The expansion had brought six new restaurants to the shopping centre including

Prezzo Prezzo () is a ''frazione'' of the commune of Pieve di Bono-Prezzo, in Trentino, northern Italy, located about southwest of Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adig ...

and

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, as well as expanding the Vue cinema and building a new

Penneys Primark Limited (; trading as Penneys in Ireland) is an Irish multinational fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original ''Penneys'' brand is not used outside of Irel ...

which opened on 6 December 2016.

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

opened in the summer of 2018, and was expected to create 450 new jobs. The construction of the Penneys Store marked the first new store opening in a decade, leading the branch at Liffey Valley to be more modernized, incorporating an Insomnia cafe within the confines of the shop. The general extensions at Liffey Valley attracted significant media interest, and have rejuvenated the local economy. Further extensions were refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanala as they would be detrimental to traffic congestion. In April 2020 property group Hines submitted a €135 million plan for a major extension to the Liffey Valley Centre in Dublin. The mixed leisure, entertainment and retail extension will include a large public plaza, and creating a new east-west street at the centre. There will also be two large retail units on either side of the plaza. A new

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a discount clothing and homewares retailer, founded in 1994. It is currently based in Watford, England. It is owned by American retailer TJ Maxx, who could not trade under the initials "TJ" in the United Kingdom due to the British d ...

has been built beside the new entrance beside Penneys and opened in 2021.

Transport

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is served by

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...

routes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, P29, L53, X25, X26, X27, X28, X30, X31, X32, 26, G2, and

Go-Ahead Ireland Go-Ahead Transport Services (Dublin) Limited, trading as Go-Ahead Ireland, is a bus operator in Dublin that commenced trading in September 2018. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History With the aim of improving efficiency, in 2015 t ...

routes L51, S4, W2 and W4. On the 19th of February 2023, a brand new "Bus Plaza" opened serving routes G2, 26, 76, 76a, L51 and L53. It is located 100 feet from the front entrance of the shopping centre and is part of the

BusConnects BusConnects is a public transport infrastructure programme, managed by the National Transport Authority (NTA), focused on the bus networks in several cities in Ireland. Described by the NTA as intended to "improve bus services across the country ...

programme. Note that the C-spine routes, P29, X routes and W4 do not operate to the shopping centre building, but rather to stops on the N4 dual carriageway which is linked to the shopping centre via a footbridge.

Planning impropriety

For two decades an actual "town centre" had been planned in a central location to serve the Lucan, Clondalkin and Palmerstown areas. But Liffey Valley was built to the northeastern extremity of the area it was originally planned to serve. This meant, as noted by Jerry Barnes, chairman of the

Royal Town Planning Institute The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the professional body representing planners in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It promotes and develops policy affecting planning and the built environment. Founded in 1914, the institute was granted ...

, that the residents of Lucan, Clondalkin and Palmerstown "have been left for 20 years without an appropriately centrally located town centre which is easily accessible to all. This has very serious long-term implications for thousands of people". Thirty Dublin councillors were investigated by the

Mahon Tribunal The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, commonly known as the Mahon Tribunal after the name of its last chairman, was a public inquiry in Republic of Ireland, Ireland established by Dáil Éireann in 1997 to investiga ...

over allegations about accepting bribes relating to the rezoning of land in Quarryvale.

Seán Ardagh Seán Ardagh (25 November 1947 – 17 May 2016) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-Central constituency from 1997 to 2011. A chartered accountant by profession, Ardagh obtained his qua ...

was named in the tribunal's report as having received contributions from lobbyist Frank Dunlop and developer Owen O'Callaghan, and the report names other councillors as "hopelessly compromised" due to their associations with the project.

References

External links

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre

The Retail Park, Liffey Valley

Reviews

{{Authority control Shopping centres in County Dublin Clondalkin Buildings and structures in South Dublin (county) Shopping malls established in 1998