It Takes A Bookshop

Stubborn kind of Finella 11SEPT19

t would seem pretty obvious now, given that we’re all intellectual giants and noted thinkers, but, back in December 1991, Mairead Garvey took a major gamble, opening a bookshop here. 

Her friends – especially the close ones – begged Mairead to see sense and sensibility, but, to no avail.

This book lover was proud, and prejudiced, convinced that if she loved nothing more than wiling away an afternoon browsing through a bookshop, well, so would plenty of other Greystonians.

And, bejiggers, Mairead was right, The Village Bookshop hitting the town running on December 1st, 1991, just in time for the Christmas rush. Followed, unsurprisingly, by a winter – and a spring – of discontent. Mairead knew then that she had a battle on her hands.

As with any good business, the key to survival for The Village Bookshop has been to never stand still, stationery (ironically enough) proving the way forward out of that post-honeymoon slump. Later, when Ireland got sideswiped by The Great Recession, it was Greystones’ young ‘uns who saved their local magic shop, Mairead having wisely taken over the old laundromat next door and expanded their children’s section into a corner nook worthy of Narnia.

Today, Mairead is sadly no longer with us, but her dream is still very much alive and thriving, as more and more people realise that there’s a wondrous, magical, mystical and enrapturing life beyond this increasingly digital world of ours. Taking over the reigns in 2001, Fenella continues her mother’s love of books, where an entire world can fit in your pocket. And it doesn’t need batteries to take you there.

That this town of ours has, according to Fenella, its own particular and highly eclectic tastes when it comes to books means that satisfying these fifty shades of Greystones’ literati is a daily search for the weird and the wonderful, the wild and the witty, the warm and the wise…

Sorry, getting a little carried away there on the poetic front, but, then again, we are talking about books, and a truly magical little shop that has carried away many a Greystonian over the years…

You can check out The Village Bookshop on Facebook here, email them on [email protected], or call on 012873925. Better still, just pop in. For an afternoon. Oh, and check out writers in Greystones here, and Greystones writers here.