While the first modern shopping centres, like the one filmed here, came into being in the United States in the 20s, it was only after the Great War, in the 60s, that they appeared in Europe. Designed to meet the needs of consumers who were now getting about in cars, they were generally set up outside urban centres and equipped with vast car parks to facilitate vehicle access. These new establishments offered popular self-service foodstuffs; a new commercial practice clearly enjoyed by the characters in the film.

Before becoming an Irish chain of department stores, selling a vast range of clothing, foodstuffs and household goods, Dunnes Stores (est. 1944) was primarily a purveyor of clothing items. In 1966 the famous name brand opened its first Irish shopping centre in the south Dublin suburb of Cornelscourt. Three years later, an amateur film crew sets up its camera in the packed aisles of food and clothing to testify to the mysterious attraction of this new emporium over the course of one busy day. In Ciall Cheannaigh, the rhythmic movement of a colourful assembly creates a compelling, richly textured picture of life in an ordinary suburb in Dublin in 1969.

Shot by a crew made up of employees from the legendary Guinness Brewery in Dublin, the film testifies to the significance of the establishment of shopping centres in Ireland, a true social phenomenon, described by director and producer Mike Lawlor as "the biggest thing that ever hit Ireland!"