Its 10am on a sunny Saturday in April and the Ikea recruitment train has rolled into Ballymun Civic Centre for the weekend. The popular Swedish com­pany seems to have brought the good weather, if not exactly the massive crowds that has been anticipated. Instead, two hundred people dressed for summer, queue patiently outside the centre, waiting for the doors to open. Lisa O'Brien, the marketing manager for the Dublin store, is still pretty pleased with the turnout "It's busy but more controlled than expected because a lot of people are applying on line, which is good" she says. The two open days are intended to give people information on the types of jobs available in the new store and offer an opportunity to meet other Ikea co-workers.

Once inside the Civic Centre, Noel Conlon from Finglas, a retired An Post worker, wastes no time in getting caught up in the spirit of Ikea. He competes with another man to assemble a Poeng chair, which according to Vivienne O'Reilly of the Ikea HR department is "one of our iconic pieces of flat pack furniture." Vivienne began her "Ikea life" as she puts it, in the Wembley store, then helped in the opening of the Belfast store, before coming to Dublin and is planning to fully relocate here to work. Today she is encouraging the light hearted atmosphere at the open day and wants people to "have a bit of craic with an Ikea flat pack" but is also taking her refereeing of the challenge seriously. With stopwatch in hand, she eggs on the contestants while stressing that the outcome will have no impact on any job applications.

It takes both men just under half an hour to assemble the chair. Noel loses the challenge by a couple of minutes. But he later jokingly claims a default victory because his component forgot a couple of screws. "It wasn't hard but finding the parts with a big audience watching was a bit daunting" he says. Noel came along to the Ikea open day because he is finding retired life a bit boring and it doesn't suit him. He's a man who is used to working so he'd like to get a part time job. However he's realistic and mindful of some other peoples' more desperate need for work. "There's a lot of people unemployed at the moment that maybe need it more than I do, but saying that, if it's available and they want me, I'll take it" says Noel.

Elsewhere in the hall, the Ikea stands are manned by smiling faces in navy and yellow uniforms that are revved up like hosts at an American political convention. Their enthusiasm for Ikea is extraordinary and more than a little cult-like. They all refer to each other as "co-worker" and it's all very egalitarian.

Lisa O'Brien explains the Ikea culture. "It's very open, we use 'co-worker' all the time, at the end of the day, looking at us, even if we are management, we don't look any different to anybody else, we don't put our titles on name badges, we all wear the same uniform and muck in, it is all about teamwork." Meanwhile, confused looking people wander from stand to stand, clutching Ikea catalogues. Many seem unsure which areas they would like to apply to for a job and need to choose from departments such as sales, logistics, catering, cashiers, customer service. But that's the point of the open days.

Two people seeking some guidance and advice are father and son, Gerard and Gary O'Reilly from Glasnevin, both plumbers that have been laid off from the same company. "I never thought that it would get this bad, we're barely holding onto the house and there's a lot of other people in our boat who were silly enough to remortgage and leave their necks hanging out" says Gerard despondently. His 19-year-old son Gary only had eight months to go in a four-year apprenticeship and had planned to go to Canada but can't find a plumbing job to finish his training. "We're hoping for something in the store end of things here because we're both plumbers and there's just nothing out there at the moment, neither of us can get any work" says Gary.

At the sales stand, textiles manager Eithne Lavin, a former department manager at Dunnes Stores, advises Teeruth Gunnoo and Yogesh Hurry, both from Mauritius, about working in Ikea. Teeruth is a jeweller by trade but is looking for a job in security or sales. "It was OK when I first came to Ireland one year ago but now it's less hours and less jobs so that's why I am here today." His friend Yogesh came to Ireland three years ago and works as a security guard but would like to get back into sales. "We came here for some guidance on how to apply, so now we will just do it online. If we are not successful, then we just have to keep going and try something new but the recession here is hard."

Eithne is buoyed with enthusiasm for Ikea after being with the company for seven months. "It's a fantastic place to work and the opportunities that Ikea can bring are amazing, so people are buzzing, they want to be part of the next big thing to hit the retail market in Ireland" she enthuses.

The Dublin store is set to open on 27 July and will create 500 new jobs. At 31,500sq m it will also stock 9,500 products and house a 550 seater restaurant. The scale of the store will be unlike anything ever seen in the republic, so it is a huge coup for Ballymun and Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, who worked hard to attract business to the area. According to Lisa O'Brien, Ballymun perfectly fits Ikea's location criteria. "Ikea would always go into a low cost area, they won't spend a lot of money on high street rents and will locate near good links like a motorway and so on" she explains.

While the store is undoubtedly a beacon of promise for Ballymun, Ikea are unwilling to commit to an exact number of jobs that will be allocated to people who live in the immediate area. Despite this, Pat Kavanagh a Mediation and Guidance Office at the Ballymun Job centre, is very optimistic about the impact the store's opening will have on the area. "There's a lot of need for our services at the moment, and even though Ballymun would have high unemployment anyway, things are getting worse. Ikea is great for Ballymun, and for Dublin, it's a lift and something really positive", she says.

Barbara Spain from Blanchardstown is also feeling very positive about the prospect of Ikea opening in Dublin. A stay-at-home mother, she is anxious to get back to work, now that the youngest of her four children is 12 years old and about to start secondary school.

"The fact that they said no experience necessary gave me the courage to come here today because you lose confidence in yourself after being out of the work force for a long time. But I did a Return to Work Course at the beginning of the year and it made me realise that I can do this. I'm here now and fingers crossed" she says smiling.

And so the steady stream of hopeful and anxious job seekers flow in and out of the Civic Centre in Ballymun, competing for jobs that perhaps five years ago wouldn't have excited them. While the mobs don't really materialise at the open days, you can be guaranteed that come 27 July, recession or no recession, Ikea will attract the adoring masses in search of their own private Poeng moment.