The owner of a pottery shop in Marino, Dublin, has said the “peace has been broken” in her “safe place” after a burglary caused extensive damage on Sunday morning.
Brookwood Pottery, a pottery shop and design studio on Marino Mart, was targeted in the early hours of Sunday morning, during which hundreds of euro in damage was done to ceramics.
A rock was also “lobbed” through the shop’s large Victorian windows, shop owner Elaine Fallon said.
The overall cost of the damage, including the replacement of the storefront windows, could amount to thousands of euro.
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Gardaí are investigating the incident, with enquiries “ongoing”, a Garda spokesman said.
Ms Fallon estimates that about €500 worth of pottery was broken, while a limited amount was stolen.
“It could have been a lot worse but we have an alarm system and the company deployed a smoke canister,” she said, believing those responsible “fled” after it was deployed.
Her shop has never been targeted before, Ms Fallon said, with Sunday night’s burglary coming as a “shock”.
“It’s the feeling of fear it instils, because something like this hasn’t happened to us before,” she said.
“People always say it’s so lovely in here and that it has such a great atmosphere, and it’s where I make as well as sell, so it’s my safe place, it’s where I come to create,” she said, adding: “Maybe it’s not as safe as I thought it was.”
Brookwood Pottery was set up in 2012 by Ms Fallon who ultimately went on to open the shop and studio in Marino in 2021, where she hosts ceramics classes and sells works including jewellery, prints and candles made by Irish craftspeople.
The shop takes in 65 per cent of its annual income in the last two months of the year to “sustain us”, she said.
“It’s hard enough to keep going in retail without this happening. We have to hit the ground running for November and December, and it’s a very pressurised time for us, so stuff like this is a nightmare.
“I think people may have the wrong impression of how well businesses are doing because they see people booming in November and December, but it’s a very long year,” she said.
Alongside the “frightening” amount of people shopping online, she said increased security threats “makes it even harder” for shops such as hers to “keep going”.
A separate business and several cars nearby were also targeted on Sunday morning, she said, believing it was “opportunistic”.
On seeing the damage done, Ms Fallon said: “I just felt sad, I felt like the peace has been broken in the shop, but at the same time I know I can recreate that again.”
