In Skerries, a new space for lovers of board and card games

It was sunny on Saturday, the first full weekend of March. The sky was blue finally; the first of the cherry blossoms out. 

In Holmpatrick Shopping Centre in Skerries, the entry to the new game shop Otter Space can easily be missed. 

It’s a door next to a convenience store with a blue sign that reads, “Coffee, Snacks, Games & More”, and “Otter Space” in smaller letters under an otter drinking a cup of coffee: with an arrow pointing upstairs.

Inside on the first floor, it was dimmer: busy, full of people gathered around tables full of card games.

The walls were stacked with games. Familiar ones like Catan, Dungeons and Dragons, and less familiar ones such as Calico, Sushi Go, and Cascadia.

Amy Hanley says she co-founded the business with her partner, Lorenzo Petrone, and about five months ago, they opened their doors.

It’s a cafe, a space to play games, and to buy them too – and a quiet haven for autistic people, like Hanley and Petrone. 

It just suits a neurodivergent brain, said regular Joe Mcloone on Saturday afternoon, like his.  

“Dice, rules. All these rules-based games. Strategy. Generally quieter, not physical,” Mcloone said. “You know what will come. There's nothing going to shock you or unexpected. Which sort of suits neurodiversity.”

The founding

Petrone said he started Otter Space as a transition away from a job he knew he wanted to leave.

“Basically I couldn't take my old office job anymore,” he said. “So I decided to do something more interesting and more rewarding.”

He considered other ideas: becoming a professional card player, or a streamer.

He consulted with his partner, Hanley, on those prospects. “And she was like, ‘Nah,’” Petrone said.

“I don't remember that,” Hanley said. “But yeah, I would have said no.”

“When he first said that he was leaving his job to open a game shop,” she said. “I was like, ‘You're crazy.’ But then I realised, like – no, it's actually a really good idea.”

In part she said, there was nothing like it nearby. “There’s nothing like that in North County Dublin,” she said.

Hanley worked at a library, although she was on leave taking care of her child. She could see this new space functioning like a library, as a quieter community space.

“Like he's picturing kind of a hardcore game shop, and I was picturing kind of a community space,” Hanley said. 

Their skills worked together, she said. Petrone the gamer, Hanley the community organiser.

They started the business in November 2024, but it wasn’t till October 2025 they had found a place, had renovated it, and opened their doors, they said.

Card games

They’re still working out the kinks – what’s popular, how to keep it busy every day. 

Trading card games are the shop’s bread and butter.

The main game today is the relatively new game Riftbound, a collectable card game based on League of Legends.

It’s the kind of game visitors come to the shop not only from north Dublin but also much further.

The card game came out just around the same time they started, Petrone said. There weren’t other spaces hosting it, so it became one of their niches. 

They run regular Riftbound events every Thursday, with bigger tournaments about once a month, he said.

They’ve been trying to hold Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments on Saturdays, but basically nobody shows up. 

Still, Otter Space will continue attempting to create space for Yu-Gi-Oh!, said Hanley. 

This upcoming weekend, they’re hosting a tournament and they have an audience for it. There are about 20 or so people signed up to compete, Hanley said. 

The vibe

Otter Space is busy but relatively quiet. 

Some people come to play popular games: like Catan and Dungeons and Dragons. There’s after-school clubs too. 

It’s a kind of space he didn’t have growing up, Skerries local Mcloone said. 

He was in the sensory room, a smaller room off the main space, with dark walls, video game images hung up, and noise-dampening foam. 

Hanley sat beside him, and nodded in agreement.

She got an autism diagnosis about a year ago, she said. Her partner, Petrone, the owner, said he got his diagnosis about five or six years ago.

Mcloone had brought a padded case with Warhammer figurines he’d painted. He spread them on the table in front of him, showing the carefully painted details. 

There is a big community that loves these different games, but they can be spread out. It can be hard to connect it, to link up, he said.

“So that's where here has been great for getting people to come,” he said.

He said he was delighted when he no longer had to go into the city centre to play. 

Community

While Petrone said he grew up with games, ““since I was a toddler”, and they have been a theme throughout his life– Hanley said she actually isn’t much of a gamer, though she’s found games she really enjoys since the shop opened. 

She’d played occasionally, like at Christmas. But what appealed to her about it was like what appealed to her about library work: the space it creates. 

Somewhere calmer, that fosters community.  “I just wanted it to be a very welcoming and inclusive space,” Hanley said. 

In the sensory room, Mcloone described it for himself, just as a feeling he had. 

That this is a place where he feels comfortable. "Kids have meltdowns, and we're like, here's a sensory toy basket, here's a sensory room. Like, it's fine."

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.