Good shopping town?

hi all,

planning a weekend or mid week trip away somewhere. I'd like to get some shopping or browsing in, but I dont want to go to a big city. I find that a lot of the bigger towns just have the same shops - Wallis, DP's, Sasha, etc. etc.
I'd like somewhere that had some more original (but not expensive boutique) shops.

So far I'm considering: Sligo, Athlone, Ennis or Mullingar.

Can anyone advise? I'd like somewhere that had a good mix - clothes shops, jewellers, knick-knack shops etc. and maybe a few nice coffee shops to visit.

thanks!

I'm from Mullingar and consider it to be a very bad shopping town but Athlone is quite good. It has a lot of unusual boutiques as well as the regular high street stores. It also has lovely restaurants eg [broken link removed] , Le Chateau, Pavarotti's, so would be an ideal place for an overnight shopping trip. www.athlone.ie might tell you more.

How about Carrick-on-Shannon? Lovely shops - nice and scenic and not a milllion miles from Dublin either.

Never thought of Carrick-on-Shannon. Always had an idea that it was only a very small town though - am I wrong?

I'm travelling from Galway.

I always like the shopping in Kilkenny!

If yuo believe the 'hype' ..- Naas??

I was fairly happy with Nenagh on my last visit there, lots of small boutiques that have a nice range of stuff, for all ages.
and its a quick drive to Limerick if you feel the urge to hit the sashas, etc