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Irish eyes have long been shining on Mary Mahoney. Eyes belonging to Pierce Brosnan and Bono, Roddy Doyle and Frank McCourt, to name a few luminaries who have shopped at Ms. Mahoney's Irish Shop on Bloor Street West, a hub of handcrafted Irish goods.

But now that Ms. Mahoney is closing her doors after 37 years, those eyes are starting to well with tears.

"People are coming out of the woodwork, crying, sending me letters and flowers, telling me, no, I can't do it, I'm a Toronto institution," said Ms. Mahoney, an elegant woman with bobbed blond hair who speaks with the lilt of her native Ireland. "But if I don't go now, I'll be an institution, or rather I'll be in one."

She is in her store, which is nearly denuded of merchandise drastically marked down as part of her closing sale. She consoles customers who approach her for hugs and an explanation for why she is has to take away their acquired habit for Irish tweed and linen.

Mary McConville, executive director of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, has come less for the discounts and more for a weepy goodbye.

"I'm so upset," said Ms. McConville, who has been buying goods from Ms. Mahoney for the past 20 years. "It's very upsetting to see it go. I don't think there will be another shop like it."

The store's distinctiveness lies in its variety of handcrafted Irish goods, from hats and capes to jewellery and clothing by such leading Irish designers as Paul Costelloe and Philip Treacy.

Ms. Mahoney started importing merchandise from Ireland almost 40 years ago, inspired by her mother, as a way of funnelling much-needed funds into a country hobbled by poverty.

"She knew that Irish women were second to none where the weaving, dying and knitting of fabric was concerned," says Ms. Mahoney. "She convinced me to get the women creating sweaters for import. I supplied them the yarn, and then paid them by the weight of the sweaters. The heavier the better."

Ms. Mahoney, who immigrated to Canada in 1970, abandoned her first career as a nurse to establish these women-run collectives and set up a shop in Toronto. Her first location was a Georgian townhouse at 84 Avenue Rd., where Irish actress Siobhan McKenna officiated at the opening. The move to Bloor Street followed in 1980, where her shop at 110 Bloor St. W. used to sell Irish literature and hold readings by visiting Irish authors such as Maeve Binchy and Colm Toibin. She moved to her current location, at the corner of Avenue Road, 10 years ago.

"It's my biggest sense of achievement," she said, "knowing that I fulfilled my mother's wish for her people."

The young people of Ireland today are less inclined to learn the old ways since Ireland's economic boom of the 1990s.

"The 'Celtic Tiger' happened so quickly and it was marvellous it happened," Ms. Mahoney said. "But it has destroyed the indigenous crafts. It's all about high-tech jobs now."

Which is why it's time to close shop, "because there aren't as many Irish manufacturers any more."

Her plan is to travel more with her devoted husband of 33 years, Derek Keaveney, a retired banker who was recently chairman of the board of Covenant House. "I want to learn French. And I love to garden. Derek and I both do. It's very rewarding, watching your garden grow."