Kilcullen friends Anna Maria Hovenden and Breda Carroll were typical of the first 10,000 people to cross the gleaming threshold in the first two hours.

Top-name shops on their doorstep would mean an end, they said, to the long journey from Kildare to either Blanchardstown or Liffey Valley, both of which now have extensions leased to almost identical shops.

Whitewater, at 32,000 sq m, is now the largest provincial shopping centre in the country, its fashionled collection featuring Zara, H&M, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, Sasha, River Island, Karen Millen, Coast, Oasis and A/Wear .

The only facility the centre doesn't have is a cinema . . . an omission has brought strong local protest. The Whitewater Where's Our Cinema group were out in force, disappointed that fashion shops have now taken the place of the original spot earmarked for a sixscreen multiplex.

Whitewater says they are currently in planning to provide an even bigger and better cinema near their centre but as yet, no opening date has been fixed. process.