Mayo's The Gaiety named one of Ireland’s best vintage and antique shops

A MAYO outlet has been named among the best vintage and antique shops in Ireland.

The shopkeepers.com teamed up with The Gloss magazine to find Ireland's best shops, with The Gaiety in Islandeady making the list for Ireland's Best Vintage and Antique Shops.

The Gaiety, a former dancehall built in 1938, was repurposed as an antique and vintage store in 2011 by Clodagh O’Connor and Sean McCaughey.

Clodagh is third generation in the antiques business, her family having a shop under the shadow of Windsor Castle, where they have done lots of restoration work, especially after the fire in 1992.

Clodagh, a psychotherapist, juggles a psychotherapy practice and The Gaiety, with some heavy lifting from Sean - a Tyrone man who stopped in Mayo on his way to Australia 19 years ago and has been there ever since.

Stephanie Large joined the ranks in 2020. Like Clodagh, she trained as an interior designer and has brought some great new ideas to the design elements in store and assisting clients with their design related questions.

About their ethos at The Gaiety, they say: 'We love anything that has a story, anything that wants to be re-loved, re-used and re-housed. Nothing pleases us more than seeing something being upcycled then delivered to its new home.

'The pieces that find a home in The Gaiety come literally from all over the world and we travel far and wide to find beautiful and interesting pieces which we bring back and display in the treasure troves of The Gaiety. The vast majority of our items are handpicked by Clodagh and Sean on their buying trips.

'We are passionate about giving the absolute best service possible and giving our customers an experience of a golden age when they visit our stores.'

For more about this little treasure of a business, see their website – thegaiety.ie.