What has Irish society come to when the opening of a shoppers' mecca in Dundrum generates such hysteria, asks Rosita Boland
Have we completely lost the run of ourselves? Since when has the opening of a shopping centre become a national event? In case it has escaped people's attention, Dundrum Town Centre is a mere shopping centre, not a state-of-the-art hospital, or an art gallery, or a museum, or some such important civic building which would truly deserve celebration.
Ridiculously hyped by a fawning media, Dundrum Town Centre opened this week to a public who have gone shopping mad. On Thursday morning, the constant flow of people alighting from the Luas at Balally stop all headed in the same direction, like followers of some post-modern Pied Piper.
Before the doors were opened on Thursday to the shopping public, all 75,000 of them, there was a short ecumenical service to bless the centre. No, that is not a joke. Fishing boats have always traditionally been blessed annually, since lives depend on the safe passage of these boats. The only thing in danger at Dundrum Town Centre is the limit on a credit card.
Methodist minister the Rev Alan Wardlow, Catholic priest Fr Donal Doherty and Church of Ireland minister, Canon Des Sinnamon read six prayers.
One prayer read: "God of Creation, may we see something of you in the creative talents of the various teams involved in designing, constructing, coordinating and funding this development."
Another read: "God of Beauty, may we see in the magnificence of this centre a reflection of your beauty, variety, brightness and colour, may it fill us with wonder and may it raise our hearts and spirits to you."
How can this be appropriate? What springs to mind is an unseemly and crass endorsement of rampant materialism. The church is often accused of being out of touch with modern life, but those prayers say something very sad about where we now are as a society: adoring at the altar of commerce, where shopping has become the new religion.
Afterwards, Fr Doherty said: "Wherever there are human beings there is a sense of mystery, and at the depths of the ordinary we find what is ordinary."
Everyone who entered the shopping centre on Thursday was handed a leaflet, which contained a map and a directory of the shops in the centre. There was also a message from Don Nugent, director of the centre. "We are about to enter a new era. Dundrum Town Centre is arguably set to become the best example of a mixed shopping and entertainment destination in Europe . . ." it began.
Hello? Is Nugent perhaps feeling a little feverish? No offence to Dundrum or its citizens, but it is Dundrum, an unremarkable Dublin suburb. Surely it is stretching the imagination just a bit to think that tourists will start arriving at Dublin airport, in search of the shopping and entertainment destination that is . . . Dundrum.
There's more. Nugent goes on to write: "It [ Dundrum Town Centre] will define the way we live today and offer a holistic experience to enrich, indulge and inspire every aspect of our lives."
Even allowing for the standard breathless PR huffing and puffing of its latest product that it is convinced the public just can't live without, this is still rich stuff. And there are still a few remaining biscuits to be taken.
Nugent declares: "It is our intention to ensure that our core values of quality, luxury and contemporary style are translated seamlessly into the Town Centre."
Exactly whose core values would they be, Mr Nugent? They are certainly not mine.
I like shopping as much as the next woman, but my core values are decidedly not those listed above.
We are being encouraged to value possessions above anything else and to keep wanting more of them. To think of shopping as a kind of competition, where you keep vying to find the most expensive things, the newest styles, the things nobody else has yet.
On Thursday, it seemed every second woman in the centre had a H&M bag hanging off her arm - the most-hyped shop of all in the centre. We wanted H&M because we didn't have it. It's a certainty that people will get bored with H&M, and start wanting something else a few months down the line. We will never have enough now, we'll always be wanting more - more malls, more shops, more stuff.
And there's more to come. Next year, the Whitewater Shopping Centre will open at Newbridge, Co Kildare. Currently under construction, the 30,000sq m shopping centre will have 50 units and be anchored by the British shop, Debenhams. A spokesperson for Whitewater says proudly: "It will be the largest regional retail development in Ireland."
Doesn't anyone find this utterly depressing? What have we turned into?
In the House of Fraser department store, at Dundrum Town Centre, I looked idly at a tiny pink Japanese-made metal-finished cabin bag. It was €230. A salesman hovered.
"What happens when it gets scratched? Won't it look scruffy?" I asked.
He didn't even pause for breath. "You just buy the next season's one," he said grandly.
"At last, Ireland gets the department store it truly deserves", read the full-page ads placed in newspapers by House of Fraser on the day the centre opened. Those words may yet prove truer than we think.
Pray for us shoppers
Some of the prayers read at the ecumenical service to bless Dundrum Town Centre:
"God of Blessing, may your blessing touch the lives of countless numbers who will avail of the services and facilities of this centre."
"God of Welcome, may all who visit here experience a warm welcome, feel called to welcome and be reminded of their place in your welcoming heart."
"God of Love, may a spirit of dedicated service be present here, making real your loving and self-giving care for us all."
"God of Goodness, in the tradition of Celtic Blessing we pray that you will circle this centre with your love, embracing within all that is good and wholesome and beneficial, and keeping without all that is evil and harmful and destructive."