27-05-2025
Celtic Tiger poster boy Gavin Lambe-Murphy ditches wild ways with new concept store
The quintessential Celtic Tiger poster boy, Gavin Lambe-Murphy was as well-known for his scribblings about the nation's celebrity set as he was for making scandalicious headlines detailing his own hedonistic party lifestyle.
Once ubiquitous on the Dublin social scene, the man-about-town has just recently opened an upmarket concept store in the leafy environs of Dublin 4 and says he couldn't fathom anything worse than attending even one soiree these days.
'I mean, you know, 20 years ago, Jesus, I was going to five parties a night,' Gavin told Gavin Lambe-Murphy. Pic: VIP Ireland
But proving he hasn't lost his wicked sense of humour, he quipped, 'Once you kind of sober up a bit, you realise you wouldn't hang around talking to those people.'
A native of the affluent seaside town of Malahide, Gavin had been a mainstay of the naughty noughties, then in 2004 he quietly and rather unassumingly dropped off the showbiz radar.
And while not quite reinvented- being still very much his old bon vivant self – Gavin is now to be found selling fancy French wines from his concept shop, Baggatonia.
'No parties. I don't do parties at all. I don't host them, go to them or throw them,' Gavin told Extra. Gavin Lambe-Murphy. Pic: VIP Ireland
'The last time I was a socialite was 25 years ago. I don't even go out and I don't go to parties anymore.'
He may have retired his Prada party shoes, but Gavin very much remains a figure on Dublin's high-society scene as he has just opened his brand new venture in Ballsbridge.
'So myself and my best friend Noelle, we went out for lunch one day, and we were thinking about what is missing in Dublin 4,' Gavin explained. 'So we decided to do the concept store with a type of cafe to the front and a deli. And luckily, it's been really well received.
'So we have a lot of Irish products, but we source a lot of stuff from Italy as well. Gavin Lambe-Murphy. Pic:
'We sell everything from wine to really great candles to men's clothing to women's clothing. And we have amazing pieces of jewellery and art. So the thing about it is it'll rotate all the time, because we're never going to carry the same stock as such. It'll be seasonal, and it'll change.'
And as for throwing a big grand opening bash, Gavin says the store had a soft opening; seeming to opt for a 'build it and they will come' approach.
And come indeed they do, as former RTE newscaster Anne Doyle just happened to pop her head round the door to wish him well on his shopkeeping venture. Anne Doyle. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos
Now that he has made a return of sorts to the D4 set, he has no desire to reprise his party boy ways.
'I still get invited to a lot of stuff, and I just never turn up,' he says. 'And people think I'm being rude or whatever.
'It's just when you did as many parties as I did back then, I'm just not interested.'
