How December 8 became the country's biggest shopping day and the start of Christmas

Remembering December 8, the day when people from the country came up the city for their Christmas shopping

The Munster Arcade, the Munster & Leinster bank, Cudmore's and Cash's can be seen in a busy Christmas scene in St. Patrick's Street, Cork, December 1961. Ref. 97M

December 8 was always the traditional start of the Christmas season.

The date was, for many years in rural Ireland, set for rural families to head to the cities for a huge annual shopping excursion, mobbing the local businesses in search of presents and other supplies, and fitting a big lunch in along the way, if it could at all be helped.