The Selection Box: Books Edition with Joan Lucey

An Irishman Abroad

Jarlath Regan

Society & Culture, News, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture:personal Journals, Personal Journals, Politics

4.8 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Vibes & Scribes is a Cork literary institution. Today Jarlath hears the story of how Joan Lucey took the leap into book selling with the help of her sister in Macroom. Joan’s inspirational story of following her gut feeling and taking on the iconic building in Cork City is one that needs to be heard. Joan explains how Vibes & Scribes came to host live events with the likes of Mary Robinson, the personality that drives the store, the crash of 2008 and how surviving it helped her through the pandemic. We get her book recommendation for the week and a rare insight into how to create your own award winning independent bookstore. To hear every episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 500 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. The Irishman Abroad Liveline is now open. You can now get in touch with us and feature on our shows by sending your WhatsApp voice note to 0044 7543 122 330. Why not pose a running question to Irish Olympic Legend Sonia O'Sullivan or ask our America Correspondent Marion McKeone her thoughts on a current talking point Stateside? Of course, if you have an issue with traffic or elephants on the loose in your area, Jarlath can do his best to sort that out too. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on [email protected]. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Selection Box, the Arts and Culture Podcasts from the Irish Men Abroad Podcast Network.
0:07.1	Well, we are approaching the end of our mini-series on independent Irish booksellers.
0:12.0	And no series focusing on these stores, their rise in popularity and our need to support them would be complete without talking about vibes and scribes.
0:21.6	The award-winning original store began life in Macroom and today finds itself at two gorgeous locations on Bridge Street and Laveits Key in Cork City.
0:32.6	The woman behind this pillar of Irish, of the Irish literary world is Joan Lucy and she joins me now.
0:39.8	Joan, thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
0:42.9	Delighted to speak with you this morning, Joanna.
0:45.5	Well, take us back to 1991 when your sister offered to help you buy a shop in McCrroom.
0:52.2	There was a huge risk in that in taking the plunge into a business
0:55.9	you didn't have experience within. What was driving you at that time to do it, Joan?
1:03.2	To be honest, it's so long ago. I still can remember what it is a long time ago. I had given up
1:09.6	the bank my secure job,
1:11.5	and I had a three-year-old son,
1:12.9	and I had separated from his father,
1:14.4	and I was looking for something new to do
1:16.8	and something to support us.
1:19.8	And my sister, I suppose, family were a bit worried about me.
1:23.7	What will you do?
1:24.4	My sister looked out the window and saw a shop out the window of her office
1:27.1	and said, you know, you could do a shop. And we decided, what could I do? It was either dry cleaning or books. And we were all readers in our family. So that didn't take much of a sort of a pondering. And so I just went forward. To be honest, I never thought about the risk. That's probably one of the things I have going for me. I'm a reasonable risk
1:45.3	taker. I mean, it's taught out risk. I just went for it and I was very fortunate in that the people
1:51.3	of McCrroom were really delighted to have a bookshop and they supported me totally and absolutely.
	...

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