Gyn Farrell from Dublin in the Irish Republic fills her car full of shopping at the Quays Shopping Centre in Newry on Saturday. (Peter Morrison/Associated Press)Recession fears across Europe have consumers spending less and retailers fearful of the future. But one Northern Ireland border town is enjoying the biggest shopping spree in its history.

A weak British pound in the northern province and a record-strong euro in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland have turned Newry into the most intensively shopped spot in Ireland — if not the continent — in recent months.

Traffic jams stretching for several kilometres and patience-shattering hunts for a parking spot are already the talk of the island.

The phenomenon could reach its peak this weekend before Christmas as tens of thousands travel from up to 12 hours' drive away to cash in on Northern Ireland shops that price goods in record-cheap British pounds.

"No, never been to the 'black north' before. Never seen any reason to come," said Sean Magee, 35, a short-of-work construction worker from faraway Limerick, southwest Ireland, in the parking lot of Newry's glitziest shopping centre, the 55-shop Quays.

Magee bore the broadest of smiles and the fullest of shopping carts.

He and his two friends, who had travelled eight hours by work van the night before and slept in the back, were pushing similar loads of beer, cider and liquor — much of it produced in the Irish Republic yet available for less than half the price in Northern Ireland.

"Never bought so much booze in one go before, but you'd be crazy not to. Think I'm good 'til St. Pat's," Magee said, referring to Ireland's national holiday of St. Patrick's Day on March 17.

"And this is sure to be a New Year's to remember!"

He'll be back

Then he donned his best Arnold Schwarzenegger-as-Terminator accent and cast a cold eye back on the shopping centre. "I'll be back," he said to laughter all around.

Veteran shoppers, store owners and retail experts long have watched the ebb and flow of shoppers across Ireland's border.

Different sales-tax policies and the shifting values between the north's British pound versus the euro — and, before 2002, the old Irish punt — usually have meant particular goods were cheaper on one side than the other.

But never like this since Ireland's partition in 1921. These days, about the only thing cheaper in the south — increasingly decried by shoppers as "the Rip-off Republic" — is the vehicle fuel required to make the trip north.

Several months ago, the pound was worth 50 per cent more than the euro, yet many British-priced goods already were cheaper than in the independent south.

That reflects the better economies of scale and higher commercial competition in the United Kingdom versus the Irish Republic.

Lower British sales tax

Today, thanks to a perfect storm of cross-border contrasts — the euro is approaching parity in value with the pound, the British have cut sales tax while the Irish have raised theirs, and British retailers are slashing prices because of recession in Britain rather than boom in Northern Ireland — savings for northbound shoppers are at least 30 per cent and usually more, depending on what you're buying.

For Fiona O'Mahony, a mother of two from the Dublin suburbs, it's all about the nappies, a.k.a. diapers.

"Pampers are a big part of the household budget these days. It's not festive, but it's reality," said O'Mahony, 32, whose cart was full of diapers, formula and children's clothes.

O'Mahony left behind the kids with hubbie for a cross-border raid with her girlfriends, who travelled up by convoy to ensure they could carry a maximum load back.

They had debated whether to fly to New York City for Christmas shopping —as they did at least annually, cashing in on the weak U.S. dollar during Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom that died last year — but decided that Ulster was a better fit for newfound recession.

"No more Sex and the City for us," she joked.

Instead, Belfast will substitute for New York as the girls planned deeper excursions into British territory over the weekend, reaching the mecca of many southern explorers — Ireland's only Ikea, east of Belfast — on Sunday.

Running out of room

"We'll never make it. We'll never have the room. I'll have to post one of the girls back to Dublin," she said.

The daily battle of Newry begins at dawn, as shoppers leave their hotel rooms or arrive before 8 a.m. openings in hope of beating the buildup of traffic back to the border a few kilometres away.

Peter Murray has been general manager of Newry's oldest shopping centre, the 60-shop Buttercrane, for 20 years and seen good times and bad — and nothing like this.

"Newry is bucking all the doom and gloom, thanks to the biting recession down south and the amazing power of the euro," Murray said.

He said the Buttercrane alone was getting about 200,000 shoppers a week — this in a city with a population under 50,000 -- and shops were reporting 125 per cent growth in sales from customers using euros.