Its the first day of in-person trading this year for non-essential retail.
Retailers across the country are preparing for their full reopening this morning.
Non-essential shops are allowed to open today, without their customers having to make an appointment, as part of a further easing of public health measures.
Last week Penneys revealed there's huge pent up demand in the market, with 275,000 people making an advance booking to enter its stores.
Duncan Graham from Retail Excellence says they're expecting a very busy few days:
Good luck to every #Dublintown Business #reOpening today for the first time. The DublinTown clean team were up bright and early this morning doing what they can to support city centre businesses pic.twitter.com/SsYjAhHXVI
— weareDublinTown (@weareDublinTown) May 17, 2021
Dublin Town is expecting a footfall of between 200 and 225 thousand in Dublin city centre as shoppers return.
Its Chief Executive, Richard Guiney is delighted shops are reopening today:
Some people have been waiting in line since early morning for shops to reopen.
These shoppers were some of the first to arrive at Navan Town Centre in Meath: