'Irish Coffee'

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In 19 50, brandon o'regan was travelling back to shannon from the us by ship. And on the ship there was this little shop selling tortyfre goods. Because the ship was in international waters, it was selling items without paying any government taxes and passing those savings along to passengers. So people like benjaregan would have been very important in starting to give the new assurance to ireland that our quality can be just as good as anybody else.

On the west coast of Ireland, on the banks of an estuary dividing county Limerick from county Clare, lies a small town called Shannon. But Shannon is not a quaint fishing village or farming community. Its industry is its airport. And Shannon Airport is big. It handles up to 1.7 million passengers and 20,000 flights a year, most of them from other countries. It looks like a cosmopolitan international airport, but it has a unique claim to fame: the world's first airport duty-free store.

Today, the store has what you would expect -- designer perfumes, jewelry and various fine foods, with a lot of local (in this case Irish) products in particular. But like the area around the airport, the shop started out small, with a local boy from the area who would go on to change the world of tax-free commerce in and beyond Shannon.

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