Hundreds queued down George’s Street on Wednesday morning to be in with a chance of grabbing one of the last pairs of solar eclipse glasses available in Dublin.
Designist, who had already sold out of the glasses twice in the last week, received a final batch from Astronomy Ireland on Wednesday ahead of that evening’s solar eclipse.
They were met by a queue that stretched from their store near the top of George’s Street all the way down to Stephen Street Upper.
Many of those in the queue arrived early to be in with a chance of picking up the coveted €10 glasses, including Rajon Rahman from Ranelagh.
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“My boss thinks I’m at work,” said Rahman, who spent the last three days searching every store in Dublin for a pair of the glasses.
“I’ve been waiting to see this for years,” he said. “I’ve been seeing it on Instagram, it’s going to be amazing ... not only the eclipse, but later in the night as well, the shooting stars.”
He arrived at Designist at 10am on the dot on Wednesday expecting to be the only one there, but was met with 200 people already queuing.
Although he spent nearly two hours waiting, he said it was worth it not to have to look directly at the sun.
“I was listening to a podcast yesterday, they said your eye doesn’t get hurt, but the damage is inside.”
Rahman is not the only one who spent a lengthy time in line.
[ Doctors warn over increased risk of permanent eye damage during solar eclipseOpens in new window ]
Kate McCauley and Michael McKay from Glenageary arrived just before 10am and were still queuing at around 11.30am.
“We just wanted to get glasses for the family, I guess, to kind of really experience the solar eclipse,” said Katie. “Like, I know, obviously everyone has the little trick that you can do with a box, but I think it’s really nice to be able to look at it directly.”
While Kate is planning to view the eclipse with her niece and parents, Michael is less concerned with seeing the eclipse.
“I’m actually going to the United match,” said Michael, referencing the Manchester United versus Leeds United soccer game being held in Croke Park on Wednesday night. “Maybe I’ll bring some glasses to the match in case you can see the eclipse from Croke Park.”
At the back of the queue, several minutes walk from the shopfront, Chloe Ladeira and Graham Martin, who met while waiting, said they hoped the queue might have subsided by then.
“I went around a few opticians and all of them said ‘We don’t sell it’,” said Ladeira.
“They were like, ‘check the astronomy.ie website’, and this is where they advertise. This is the only venue in all of Ireland where they sell them.”
[ Solar eclipse in Ireland: When to watch, where to go and how to protect your eyesOpens in new window ]
The pair were quietly optimistic that they might be able to pick up a pair despite the hundreds ahead of them in the queue.
“The queue is moving fast enough, but that means they’re selling them,” said Martin, who is a Dublin-based photojournalist set to be covering the eclipse. “If I’m there, I want to see it, you know.”
Even if they aren’t able to get glasses, both seemed intent on experiencing the eclipse in some sense.
“I think I’ll still go out to the park and like see what happens,” said Ladeira, who lives close by Phoenix Park. “If someone generous wants to share with me, I’m going to try and borrow a pair.”
Patrick Connolly from Terenure is on school holidays, but him and his mother and little brother also joined the hunt for the glasses. They had been waiting an hour-and-a-half in the queue, but were yet to get close to the shop itself.
“Yesterday we tried to go to a different place in on the north side, but then they didn’t have them, so they showed this location here in town,” said Patrick who is hoping to watch the eclipse with his family at his local green.
For Evelyn de Oliveira (35) and her three-old-son Lucca from Johnstown, Co Kildare, their two-hour wait was something of an emotional experience.
“I recently received a difficult diagnosis of an incurable illness”, said Evelyn. “As a result, I’ve started to lose my memory.”
“I’ve already started to forget things, but I thought, in the future, my son can remember with me this adventure,” she added. “Waiting two hours was nothing compared with having the chance to create this memory with him.”
She also remarked on the kindness of the people she met in the queue, including a woman who bought her son an ice-cream from Lidl while waiting.
“There was something very special about watching people come together over something as simple and extraordinary as looking up at the sky.”
Inside the shop, which is flanked by a store employee ensuring that only one customer is entering at a time, Joanne and her children Ollie and Sadie Higgins are over the moon to have just purchased their glasses.
Joanne said she had planned to drive by and let her son Ollie out to pick them up, but soonrealised she’d need to “turn the car around for parking”.
Also busy inside the shop was Jennie Flynn, owner of Designist, who said she was not expecting the “phenomenal queue” they had outside.
“The last time there was a solar eclipse, they were doing them in supermarkets, they were giving them away in magazines, they were everywhere,” said Flynn, “so we actually only ordered a very small amount thinking we mostly give them away to customers, but then we sold out twice.”
On Sunday night, Flynn was able to secure an extra order of about 2,000 pairs of the glasses from Astronomy Ireland, for whom the profits from the sales are going to.
“We used to run this shop in the science gallery, so it’s something that’s been on our radar in a way that it might not be for other organisations,” Flynn added, “so it’s really nice to be serving that community.”
Yet not everyone in the queue was necessarily intending to watch the eclipse, having alternative motives for waiting in the sun on George’s Street.
“My boss sent me out of work and gave me his credit card to come here and stand in line for him because he’s not able to make it himself,” said Calum O’Reilly from Tallaght. “So I’m here on the clock.”
While he isn’t particularly planning on watching the eclipse himself, he was enjoying the sense of community he said he felt in the queue.
“It’s nice to see people get together for it,” said Calum. “People have been giving out lollies and ice pops to kids in the line – it’s nice to see a group come together.”
