The Selection Box: Books Edition with Tomás Kenny

An Irishman Abroad

Jarlath Regan

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

4.8 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode of our mini-series on Irish independent bookshops Jarlath visits Kenny's Bookshop in Galway. He speaks to Tomás Kenny about the university romance that gave rise to this family business, the gamble of starting a bookstore in 1940s Ireland and the remarkable stories that are tied up in the history of this Irish literary institution. From humble beginning Kenny's has gone on to become a pillar of the Irish arts landscape west of the Shannon and the preferred Irish book supplier for the United States Library of Congress. Tomás also explains how a chance meeting with an unemployed computer engineer in 1994 resulted in Kenny's bookshop beating Amazon to the internet punch. Finally we hear the touching story of how the local community rallied around the bookshop during the pandemic. 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	Hello there and welcome to another very special edition of the selection box for our independent
0:06.4	bookstores series. So far in our series, we have been all around, Darling. We've met Joanne Hunter
0:13.6	from Books at One in Luzberg and Kevin Gildee, the owner and creator of the phenomenon
0:19.0	known as Kevin Gildee's brilliant bookshop in Dunleary.
0:22.9	Well, if those two stores are the youngsters of the group, Kennes in Galway,
0:27.8	is without a shadow of it out the granddaddy of them all.
0:31.2	Kenny's located on the Tomb Road, just outside the city,
0:34.2	celebrated 80 years in business back in 2020. It's been a hell of a ride,
0:39.7	but unlike so many others, Kenny's resilience and ability to adapt to change might be the keys
0:46.3	to their survival here today to tell me how this small family-run business began on the high
0:53.4	street as a result of a university romance
0:56.0	and became only the second bookstore in the world to go online in 1994. That beats Amazon,
1:03.4	by the way, and today is recognised as an Irish literary institution of both independent
1:10.2	bookselling and the arts itself is Tomas
1:13.5	Kenny. It's great to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
1:18.0	Not at all. Thank you so much for having me. It's a great honor.
1:20.6	Well, take us back. You obviously were told the story of how Des at Maureen met.
1:30.4	So maybe you can give us your version of events.
1:36.0	I understand they were both. Were they in the same course at UCG? Yeah, they both at arts. I mean, at the time there was, I think in the course of when my grandmother and grandfather were
1:42.1	there, there was, they went over 100 students in the college.
1:46.7	So it was, and then when my father was there, they went over 1,000.
1:51.1	And now there's, I think, 20,000 there.
	...

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