Between the Shelves

Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery in Galway is one of the most celebrated independent bookshops in Ireland, widely recognized not just as a retail store, but as a global pioneer in e-commerce and a major cultural institution. The story begins with a university romance. Desmond Kenny, a native Galwegian, and Maureen Canning, from Mohill, County Leitrim, met on their very first day at University College Galway (UCG). Upon graduating, they married. With few jobs available during World War II, the young couple decided to open a bookshop—a move friends and family considered an act of financial madness. With a £100 bank loan and books donated by relatives, they opened Kennys Bookshop on November 29, 1940, on High Street, Galway. They rented two rooms, living in the back room and running the shop out of the front. To survive, they had to be incredibly inventive: they operated a lending library, ran a second-hand schoolbook exchange, and Desmond traveled on the road selling books directly to county libraries. In the 1950s, Maureen began introducing locally handmade Irish crafts (rugs, sweaters, ceramics) to add color to the shop. This naturally attracted visual artists. In 1953, they hosted their first art exhibition, hanging paintings directly over and among the bookshelves. By 1968, the art collection demanded its own space. Desmond and Maureen converted the living room of their family home in Salthill, effectively opening the first commercial art gallery in the West of Ireland. Their inaugural formal exhibition featured legendary Irish painter Seán Keating. . By the 1970s, five of the Kennys' six children had entered the family business, each expanding a different arm of the trade (such as establishing a dedicated Book Bindery in 1974). The shop became a famous gathering place for local poets, bibliophiles, and international authors. Famous faces like Edna O'Brien, John McGahern, Seamus Heaney, Kate O'Brien, and Frank O'Connor were frequent visitors, and Kennys began a tradition of photographing every writer who walked through their doors. In the early 1980s, the family bought the High Street building they had been renting for 40 years, along with the building behind it on Middle Street, connecting them into a massive, multi-story literary maze. Their expertise in Irish literature led to the US Library of Congress appointing Kennys as its official Irish book supplier. Long before major multinational corporations came to dominate internet commerce, Kennys made history. In the summer of 1994, collaborating with Barry Flanagan (founder of Ireland On-Line), they launched Kennys.ie. It was Ireland’s first ever e-commerce website and only the second bookstore in the entire world to sell books online. They beat Amazon to the web by a full year. Because they already had an international database and a product that was easily shippable, the digital venture exploded, allowing them to ship rare, second-hand, and new Irish books to collectors across 150 countries In 2006, after 66 years on High Street, the family made the monumental and emotional decision to close their historic city-center doors to pivot fully toward their massive online trade and wholesale operations. In 2009, Kennys consolidated everything—their retail shop, the art gallery, and their vast warehouse of hundreds of thousands of volumes—into their current premises at Liosbán Retail Park (just outside Galway city center). True to the spirit of the shop, the matriarch Maureen Kenny fully backed the move before her passing, famously stating, "You have to move with the times." Liosbán Retail ParkTuam RoadGalwayH91 N5P8IrelandTel : +353 (0)91 709350Email : [email protected]"Every bookshop has a story. Between the Shelves tells them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Reading Room is a celebrated independent bookshop located in the picturesque riverside town of Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. Established in 2006, it has evolved from a local retail space into a vibrant cultural anchor for the community, recognized across the North West of Ireland for its passionate curation and distinct independent spirit. The shop is situated on Bridge Street in Carrick-on-Shannon. Despite its modest, cozy physical footprint, it is widely renowned for "punching well above its weight" with a meticulously selected, highly diverse inventory. Rather than relying entirely on mass-market bestsellers, the shop prides itself on an eclectic, intelligent mix of: Contemporary and classic literary fiction.Local history, Irish heritage, and regional poetry. An expansive, thoughtfully curated children's literature section.A hallmark of the shop's identity is its focus on personalized discovery. Its heavily frequented "Staff Recommendations" shelf features hand-written reviews and tailored suggestions, establishing the shop's reputation for helping readers unearth rare or hard-to-find indie titles that larger chain stores frequently overlook. Beyond standard retail, The Reading Room functions as an active literary center for County Leitrim. It routinely hosts local book clubs, poetry readings, and author events, frequently collaborating with regional arts initiatives and local government cultural programs. To reach book lovers beyond Leitrim, the shop operates a highly successful bespoke book subscription service. Through this program, the staff selects a personalized book each month tailored entirely to an individual subscriber's specific reading tastes and profiles, shipping them across Ireland and internationally. Adding to the location's distinct charm for visiting bibliophiles, the shop sits directly across the road from Trinity Rare Books—a treasure trove of antiquarian and secondhand volumes. Together, the two independent shops form a highly regarded, collaborative "literary microclimate" on Bridge Street that attracts collectors and readers from all over the country. The Reading Room Book Shop,Bridge St,Carrick-on-Shannon,Co LeitrimTel: (071) 9671580Email: [email protected] www.new.thereadingroom.ie"Every bookshop has a story. Between the Shelves tells them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.