I always forget something when I travel, and this time it was a bloody UK/US adapter plug…read more Initially, I bought one from the hotel which was so cheap, you could tell just by looking at the individually wrapped item as if it was a cookie from Circle K. It was unusable, so I returned it and searched out in the world. After passing up a sketchy place on Dame Street, I came across this hardware store that had a small selection of converter plugs. Both the gents working there were friendly and talkative, assuring me that they were of good enough quality, or they wouldn't sell them. I went for the less expensive of the two adapters, and it works just swell. Reasonable price. Lifesaver!!! I CAN PLUG IN MY ELECTRONICS OMFGGGGG... I have no other experience, and likely never will... but if I can find an excuse to start a home improvement project in Dublin, I'll come back here.

I'm a sucker for hardware stores, even when I'm travelling in a foreign land. I happened upon…read moreDecwells DIY while walking around town, and made it a point to stop in later in the day to look around. I was fine on adapter plugs, but needed a new lock for the gym back home. Found a nicely sized 3-number combo by ABUS. The nice and helpful guy helping me tried to steer me to a cheaper model, but I know what I wanted.

My boyfriend and I just moved into a new apartment. As with any new place, you settle in and…read morerealize that some of the things you're used to, like plugs in the bathroom, or a door that opens, didn't come with the place. At first you rant and rave, "how could an apartment have no bathroom outlets!? Why is there a door here if it doesn't even open!? WTFFFFF" Then you rush out of the house in a huff and stumble upon a teeny hardware store and everything is better. That's what happened to us at least. We wandered in one day and chatted with the owner who was so helpful. We got set home with some extension cords and a kind of crowbar to bust that door open. Everything was fine and dandy, though I think we may have paid a premium for shopping at such a little place. But since the owner was there and it obviously is his livelihood, I didn't feel so bad.

Wow great shop, great atmosphere....the young guy is cute....its a must visit...kind of unique.The…read moreyoung guy is cute . .....C

It's 4pm on a Saturday, I have just started putting up those book shelves that I promised I'd do…read morelast January and I realise I have no plaster board plugs... this is not an entirely fictional emergency!. So, I hammer down to sandymount hardware where the guy behind the counter of this really very small shop manages to find a selection of the above plugs, lifesaver... the shelves through no fault of the plugs, fell down 3 days later. The shop has just about everything you could possibly need from pot plants, fuel for the fire to clothes lines and of course, plasterboard plugs. A great shop to have on the door step and the guys behind the counter are always there with helpful advice.

I can't help myself, whenever I'm in Sandymount I've got to drop in to Murtagh's for a peek at the…read moreshelves. Sometimes it's just to see what they've brought in (compost pots AND toy trains?!), but always for Christmas. Every November Murtagh's converts from mild-mannered hardware store (home of garden chairs, stew pots, rubber washers and Bord Na Mona firelogs) to full-on Christmas (and hardware) bazaar. Really. Besides keys cut and bulbs fit, the cheery lads of Murtagh's are Christmas tree lumberjacks, lifters and occasional lashers of said trees to the roof of your Renault Clio without scratching the paint. Stop in any afternoon to pick the live spruce of your jingle dreams, they'll help with the rest. Most years there's also a good selection of fake trees inside -one year a very sweet little plastic number from straight off the display stand found a home, ornaments and all, in the living room of a very cheered future yelper. It's lovely to know these small businesses can thrive despite larger econo-woes. As long as they're open Murtagh's can be sure of a very loyal patronage, nails, twine and all.

This is a wonderful little D.I.Y store located on Pearse St. It caters mainly for the locals who…read morelive in the area. It is jam packed with everything you might need, but don't fancy a trip into town to get. They stock everything from lightbulbs to washers for a tap and sell everything from watering cans to nails. They also have a key cutting service. It's a joy to pass this place and see all the items on display outside the shop. Shops like this are a national treasure and hopefully will never disappear with the likes of the chain DIY stores spreading like wildfire. You always need places like this where the guys who actually work there, know a thing or two about DIY !

Hate the store hours. They say they're open until 17:00 on weekdays and when you show up at 16:50…read morethey already have the locks on the windows and the place is shut tight. This is why Woodie's is a BIG store and Pearse Street Hardware is a rinky dink store. I have to go to Woodies now because these guys didn't stick around for a full day. When you do find their little shop open the people are nice and they usually have a version of the thing you need. It may not be the brand of light bulbs or batteries or drain cleaner that you are used to, but it is legitimately a light bulb, a battery and something that works on drains. They get an A for customer service but a D for making it easy for people to give them money. That's my biggest Pet Peeve: Businesses who make it difficult for you to give them money. Kinda defeats the purpose of being a business doesn't it? Woodie's is open until 21:00 so they get my money today. But I tried to support the Little Guy first.

This shop, although to my dismay has been there almost 2 years, is a real find for a whole array of…read morehousehold goods, DIY, and especially electrical goods! The problem is it is not easy to find...it is located through a lane way off the Main Street, at the entrance to Celbridge Hire and right beside Gimini Hair. The proprietor told me Kildare County Council will not allow him to advertise his shop with a sign on the Main Street so he has to rely on word of mouth! Yesterday, I was able to purchase a whole lot of different light bulbs for various light fittings, even one for my freezer...and might I add at an extremely reasonable rate. All you Celbridge people, do call to this amazing little shop for all your electrical needs and other household items!

Very early in my Yelp career I likened a restaurant (Bloom I think) to the Tardis - a place that…read moreseemed to be impossibly big given the frontage of the shop etc.... but nothing prepared me for this place which really did shock the pants off me (I put them back on immediately, no more court cases for Q please!) Sextons Garden centre is a modest wee shop in a line of shops, you go in, realise they are quite stuck for space - they must be, everything is orderly but crammed in there - then wander down to the back of the shop, then realise 3 years later you are still wandering. The back of the shop is HUGE, really, it opens out to an outdoor area offering all manner of fountains, shrubs, compost yada yada yada. They have just about anything you need for the garden - plants and hardware and from now on I shall be going here instead of Woodies.

I was horrified this morn, half way through September, to hear an ad on the radio for Christmas…read moreparties... the first Christmas ad of the season... good god, where did that last year go? Anyway as I mulled over all things festive I happened to be on Sandymount avenue and there are the gates to Enable Ireland and their great little garden centre where I have gotten our Christmas tree for the last 4 years. I wander in, and realise that there is more here than trees and plants; they have garden tools and pellets, compost and oddly enough a selection of posters saying things like you 'don't have to be crazy to work here' yada yada yada. They also have a display of Ballydongan pottery (nope, never heard of it either) jolly nice as it happens. The garden centre is part on Enable Ireland so when you shop there you are not only getting some very nice greenery (or dodgy plaques/posters) but your cash is doing some extra good.... which is nice.

...and one day i found myself really getting into the gardening thing…read more.. but alas, i needed supplies. SUPPLIES!!! and my searches all ended up in tiny TINY little places where i had to dig underneath things to find other things and generally didn't find many things i needed at all. so imagine my thrill at finding Avenue Garden Centre. not only is it larger than a cupboard, they have loads of things. they have an entire area dedicated to ginormous bags of compost. another area just for pots. short of flying back to the america and going to home depot, it's the best garden store i've found within throwing distance of city centre. yes, i'm sure there are more magical places out in the burbs, but please people, i don't have a car and i don't fancy hauling 50kg bags of compost around on the LUAS. i'm sure you can understand. i was able to get there on DART, find the things i needed (and then some) and hail a nice lady cabbie (i know, right?) to get it all back to the house for me. luckily, i also had Husband with me to do the heavy lifting. oh i should also mention that the staff was also extremely helpful and friendly. i didn't feel like a complete retard asking them for help. that's a bonus in my book :)