The Square Tallaght


The Square Tallaght is the name of a shopping centre located in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland, opened in 1990. It is located just off junction 11 of the M50 motorway on the Belgard Road and the N81.
The centre comprises 53,000 m2 of retail space, spread across three levels, and as of 2016 has up to 163 stores. It has an annual footfall of 21.7 million.
There are over 2300 car parking spaces. The taxi rank is the second busiest in Ireland, after that of Dublin Airport. The anchor tenants are Dunnes, Debenhams and Tesco. When The Square opened it was the largest shopping centre in Ireland.

History

The centre was opened on 23 October 1990, in the presence of 45,000 people, by then Taoiseach Charles Haughey, having been built at a cost of £85 million. Others who were in attendance included Gay Byrne, who hosted his 2FM radio show from the “Crows Nest” in the shopping centre, as well as Mary Harney, Pat Rabbitte, the then Director-General of RTÉ Vincent Finn and the Fine Gael leader at the time Alan Dukes.
It was the first of four large shopping complexes built in the suburban centres surrounding Dublin from the late 1980s onwards and was for a while the largest shopping centre in Ireland. The others are Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre and Dundrum Town Centre.
The opening of the centre would be the first of many new developments in the area over the coming years. Institute of Technology, Tallaght, the National Basketball Arena, the Civic Theatre and Tallaght University Hospital all opened within a few years of the shopping centre..
The centre celebrated its 25th anniversary on 23 October 2015. The centre was recently granted permission by An Bord Pleanála for a major redevelopment to the centre. The proposed project will add about 200,000 square feet of retail space.

Facilities

The Square is not only a commercial but also a civic centre, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners have an office there as does the Department of Social Protection, the Health Service Executive the Eastern Region and FÁS share a building on the car park of level one. In addition, both the headquarters of South Dublin County Council and the Tallaght branch of South Dublin Libraries are adjacent to the site. A Civic Theatre is located close to The Square Town centre, which hosts theatre, music, dance, opera and comedy. The Tallaght University Hospital is also located nearby.

Public transport

The centre is served by the Luas Red Line, the closest station for the shopping centre is Tallaght.
The Square Shopping Centre is also served by 8 Dublin Bus routes which are the 27, 49, 54a, 56a, 65, 75, 76, 76a and 77a Bus routes.