One of my siblings was given a gift of a free TV from a US summer employer. Stopped in Shannon for the duties. So TV was left with them, a year later another sibling collected it from Shannon and brought it back to New York as a wedding gift. When I was a child I travelled out to the middle east and came back with a suitcase fully loaded with booze. As we were underage and under the care of Aer Lingus nobody batted an eye lid.I was stopped once coming back from the States, but was ok on the limit, haven't chanced it subsequent to that.
Those were the days. I moved on to Duty Paid fags and brought them in by the multiple cartoon full for my parent who paid me for them.