I went to Kenny's bookshop in Galway with my 11 year old daughter in 2001. Kenny's was one of the main things I wanted to see in Galway. As I recall, we walked from Eyre Square along a street that was a pedestrian mall. It was not easy to walk along quickly because there were crowds of people. We heard other languages and I thought that the young people might be students. People that gathered around street performers would practically block all traffic down the street.
We didn't have a lot of time to spend at the shop but I saw Maureen Kenny sitting at a desk talking to people and I went upstairs to look at the Irish language old book section, one of the many places in Ireland where I wish I had more time to spend. My daughter sat on the floor while I looked around.
There was also a nice contemporary Irish language book section (one or two tall bookshelves as I recall) and I bought some books there.
On this trip last month, we drove along the east side of Galway and I saw a red brick warehouse with the big words "
www.kennys.ie" above the door. For some reason I had thought that online sales were a small part of the business but obviously I was wrong.
I think Galway will be a bit less attractive to tourists without Kenny's shop.
Anybody else have memories to share?
