Why have the Irish sold off their Sundays for shopping?

People have been shocked at how the US Black Friday concept suddenly entered the Irish lexicon this year. It’s didn’t surprise German, Mareike Graepel who still can’t believe why we embraced US-style Sunday shopping.

Here is what Germans think about Ireland: It’s a beautiful country, where relaxed people who were given the gift of time by God himself live in small towns with tiny shops and cosy pubs, rolling green fields all around, and on the weekends everyone goes to church and then for a carvery lunch and a drive to the sea.

(Dublin being the metropolitan exception, of course.)

In our picture of Ireland there are no shopping havens like Mahon Point or Dundrum, no jam-packed city centres on a Sunday, no families with two overflowing trolleys in a 24-hour-super-duper megastore.

Not that we wouldn’t use all this when we are over on holidays or for work - as I happilydid during my time living in Cork when I forgot something important for a Sunday barbecue, didn’t get to buy the new album of my favourite band on Friday, or needed a gift for the newborn baby of a friend. It is convenient - but is it necessary?

In Germany, all shops are closed on Sundays. With the exception of filling stations with very small grocery sections (mainly toiletries, seldom fresh produce) and farmers’ shops which are growing quickly in popularity - but they only sell fruit and veg and maybe meat and cake.

Some German towns - like the one we now live in - have a marketing concept that involves “open Sundays” on, say, every first Sunday of the month.

Of course it is lovely to stroll through a pretty and picturesque city or village on a Sunday - no other commitments, no appointments, no stress - other than maybe trying to push through packed little shops.

During the four weeks leading up to Christmas, some bigger cities add the Sundays to their shopping week. But it stays special because it’s unusual - you don’t get to do this on any other Sunday and not in every city.

But as we are in fact living in a town with that “open Sunday once a month” concept, and could theoretically take advantage of it every month, we rarely make use of it - we rather flee the city centre (before it gets flushed with hordes of tourists) and cycle around the lake, go for a hot chocolate in a café on the outskirts or just stay at home and make the most of our time together as a family.

Work, school and many other daily duties during the week make those Sundays extra-special and we thrive on those special moments when all of us sit down and play together.

I am very sure our children will remember those moments more than having to stay near me in a busy supermarket - which they have to do too often on the average week day.

As a German, I always wondered if the Irish don’t mourn the times when they had more…well, time, before the Celtic Tiger made everyone (apparently) rich and commercially extremely active.

Before the economic boom there were other, more severe, problems, no doubt. But - for an outsider - it felt as if Ireland was trying to catch up with the rest of Europe within a few years, losing its handsome and endearing qualities that the rest of the world admired.

To a point, that’s understandable. Houses, cars, holidays, everything were right there, in front of you. The old Ireland seemed forgotten.

But instead of breathing in the fresh air on Lough Hyne or trekking through the Burren on a Sunday, people would push buggies through the air-conditioned malls.

The shops in Ireland are - more less - the same as everywhere else in the world: big Swedish clothes stores, British chains, shopping “American style”. It’s like the fast food principle of the huge franchises - the iconic burger tastes the same in New York, Killarney and Haltern.

Do I need it every day? No. Does it still taste like this on Monday? Of course, yeah.

After all, the German tourists tell the people back home that when God made time he made enough of it - in Ireland.

You can be sure that all the pictures of their trip to the Emerald Isle will have idyllic landscape, rainbows, beaches and pubs in them.

If you find a German who returns home showing a picture of a Tesco on a Sunday, you are in possession of a needle in a haystack.

Of course, as a nation, we are ourselves known to rush, be punctual and efficient, never miss a deadline. That’s why we have such an interest in the Irish way of life - and get surprised when we arrive in the “new Ireland”.

We are drawn to Riverdance and folk festivals, prefer B’n’Bs to posh spa hotels and the farmers’ markets to the shopping centres.

We look to Ireland for a better quality of life - but find 24-hour-shopping, shopping on Sundays, Christmas beginning in mid November and Black Friday being exported from the US to create even more of a spending frenzy.

We envied the Irish - but never for their 24/7 shopping extravaganzas.

Every time the shop closing law appears on the political agenda, Sunday shopping and late shopping during the week gets crushed.

Just recently the Federal Administrative Court ruled that working in call centres and video rental stores should not be permitted on Sundays.

I want to say: Thank God. He made enough time. Let’s use it wisely, especially on Sundays.