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.)