About Burke’s Irish Gifts
Traditionally Crafted Irish Giftware & Souvenirs
Located in the heart of Waterford’s Viking Triangle, less than a minute’s walk from The House of Waterford Crystal and Waterford’s award winning museums, Burke’s Irish Gifts offers a wide range of products, inspired by Ireland.
The Burke’s of Waterford have a long history of retail in Ireland’s oldest city. My Grandfather (Padraigh Burke) used to help his father in the family business: Burke’s for Bikes, circa 1920, located on George’s Street where Strand Travel now stands.
As a young man, my grandfather moved to London, returning to Waterford when war broke out. He brought with him his new wife (Bridget Radley) and baby son Jack (My grandmother and uncle).
Our History
Since 1945
The site of the shop is steeped in history for the Burke’s of Waterford.
On New Year’s Eve 1948, 3 stories above where we sit today, my mother was born.
Her birth caused great excitement, not only because she was born on New Year’s Eve, but also because my Grandmother had suffered many miscarriages after her three sons were born, so their first daughter arriving into the world, alive and healthy on New Years Eve was surely a cause for celebration and an indication of better things to come.
My grandparents had moved from Tramore, into the city and occupied the top floor flat on The Mall from 1945 until 1950, when the moved with their four children to the ‘new houses’ on the Cork Road.
My grandfather worked as a bus driver in the city, and they would go on to have three more children after my mother, sadly only two of them would survive their early years.
As the Spring of 1959 made way for Summer, tragedy struck when my Grandmother died, leaving behind 7 children. 10 days later the youngest of her children, my Aunt Bernadette, passed away from Meningitis at just 11 months old.
To make matters worse, my Grandfather was taken ill and admitted to hospital where he would stay for the next year.
So at the beginning of July 1959, with their father in hospital, 1 month after the death of their mother and barely 2 weeks after the death of their little sister, my 10 year old mother, and her younger brother and sister, my Aunt and Uncle, were on their way to London to live with their mother’s sister, their Aunt Nora.
Thankfully my Grandfather recovered, and in August 1960, after a year in London, his three youngest children returned to Waterford.
He remarried in 1963, and in 1965, along with my Granny Stella, set up the first driving school in Waterford – Waterford School of Motoring located on the Quay. There he would spend the next 20 years or so teaching thousands of Waterford’s residents how to drive.
My grandfather passed away in 1989, aged 77, and my Granny Stella passed in 2006.
I, like my grandfather, moved to London as soon as I was old enough and, like my grandfather returned to Waterford.
I opened Tower Gift Shop on the Quay in 2014, just a stone’s throw away from where he had his School of Motoring for all those years.
In January 2020 I signed the lease for a new shop on The Mall, with the aim of showcasing products that reflect the heritage and traditions of Ireland, and it seemed natural to name it after my own heritage.
So although the shop itself is a new venture, it is part of my Family’s history.
The grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Padraigh and Bridget Burke are, like so many Irish families, scattered all over Ireland, the UK and even America, but the traditions and the heritage of our shared history live on, generation after generation.
Our Brands
In Store & Online
