It was a strange sight: in June, with lockdown just having ended, on an otherwise empty Mary Street in Dublin, a line of mainly women queuing along the road and around the corner to get into Penneys. After three months at home, you can understand their eagerness to get out to the shops. There were queues outside Penneys shops all around the country that morning. According to yesterday’s trading update from ABF, Penney’s parent company, shoppers kept coming back after opening day. It reports that ever since stores reopened, Penneys (which trades as Primark outside of Ireland) has traded strongly.…

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