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NEXT SATURDAY MORNING, a week from today, the former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is due to launch his autobiography in the Waterstone’s bookshop in the Quays Shopping Centre, Newry. Fortunately for Ahern, Irene from Darndale did her shopping in the Quays last Wednesday. “It’s a shame he’s not here today,” she says. “I’d knock the head off him.” writes ANN MARIE HOURIHANE

Newry is a small town with two huge shopping centres, the Quays and the Buttercrane, on its southside. As Angus O’Neill, manager of the Sainsbury’s supermarket, which is the anchor tenant of the Quays, says: “These are very, very exciting times for retailers in Northern Ireland.” It is easy to describe what Southerners buy most of: booze, nappies, health and beauty products and, rather touchingly, an awful lot of biscuits and confectionery. We are a simple people.