HMV has opened its first store in Ireland – eight years after closing its doors and going online.

The new store on Henry Street is the British retailer’s first outside of the UK since it was rescued by Canadian businessman Doug Putman in 2019.

The chain now has flagship outlets in Birmingham, London and Dublin.

There were long queues at the store this morning as the outlet made its return to Ireland.

HMV spokeswoman Patrizia Leighton told Newstalk the excitement outside the shop was palpable.

The new HMV store on Henry Street. Image: Heather Lawrie/Newstalk

“It is so great to be here in Dublin,” she said “I mean, the people have been amazing and the teams are really up for it, so yeah, it’s really good.

“And obviously, the amount of people that were here this morning, it was great.”

The British retailer closed its last Irish store in 2016 and went fully online.

Two years later, its online offering also shut down.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, writer and broadcaster Pat Carty said it is an exciting day for those of a certain vintage.

“Some of those who are listening might have spent an awful lot of time in record shops on a Saturday, just standing going through racks,” he said.

“There is something about, maybe, going through an Amazon webpage or something like that that really isn’t the same.

“The fact that there is going to be three stories of records down on Henry Street – I’m absolutely delighted.”

The 6,000 sq ft store will stock over 15,000 products across three floors – including 10,000 vinyl albums and CDs, as well as a wide range of music technology products.

Mr Carty said the return is largely down to the increasing popularity of records.

“Vinyl outsold CDs for first time in 35 years last year,” he said.

“It is priced accordingly so there is a large profit margin on it but it’s just a beautiful thing – with a CD it’s so small you can barely read the sleeve notes, but vinyl is a thing of beauty.”

The new HMV store on Henry Street. Image: Heather Lawrie/Newstalk

He said the non-music offering will also appeal to young shoppers.

“I have a couple of daughters who are teenagers and they don’t own any music – but they would go in there and buy the t-shirts that cost €20 or €30,” he said.

“I mean, talking about the record sleeves, they would have a t-shirt that might say the Clash on it because that’s cool.”

The new store aims to become a “destination for music lovers” and will also offer performance spaces to create the city’s latest live music venue, hosting shows and signings from some of the country’s biggest artists.

It also hopes to attract global stars to Dublin, with the UK outlets welcoming the likes of Charli XCX, Stormzy, Shania Twain, Raye and Ellie Goulding in the past year.

You can listen back here:

With reporting from Heather Lawrie on Henry Street.