According to a spokesperson, employees laboured all night to get the space ready for the afternoon's reopening.

Brown Thomas Arnotts CEO Donald McDonald expressed the retailer's horror and sadness over the attack on a woman and children at Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square, as well as the “terrible events” that followed last night in Dublin's city centre.

The CEO stated that the picture of Arnotts on social media, which showed a group of individuals crashing through the Abbey Street door immediately after it closed and looting a few select areas of the store, particularly upset the firm.

“We decided to close the store early last evening because we thought it would be best for our team members and customers' safety. Although rattled, all our staff members and customers are safe, and thankfully nobody was injured in the events that transpired at Arnotts,” the CEO stated.

“Arnotts is a very special place, made up of great people and throughout its 180-year history, Arnotts has not alone survived but thrived through tough times, emergencies and many crises,” added McDonald.

“Arnotts is Dublin's department store, it is part of Dublin, so shame on those people last night for what they did to our city and our beautiful store,” he said.

“They might have taken some products and caused damage to our store, but they will never be able to destroy the Arnotts spirit—we won't let it. Our teams have been repairing our store all night long. We'll make the necessary repairs and reopen later than usual, but we'll serve our patrons with the same pride that we always had at Arnott's,” said the man.

“Right now, our paramount concern is for our team's welfare and safety, and we thank them for their professionalism and resilience during the disturbance last night,” he said.

According to Mr. McDonald, Arnotts will communicate with the appropriate authorities and the Gardaí to find out what steps they are taking to make sure that this doesn't happen in Dublin City or any other location where its stores are located.

The GPO on O'Connell Street resumed operations, as reported by An Post.

It stated that by opening later than normal, it would give time for the city centre to be cleaned up and for personnel and customers to resume using public transportation.