S3 Ep6 Neil Paul & Brid Conroy, Tertulia (Westport, Ireland)

Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. And on today’s episode I am so very glad to be going to Ireland, probably my favourite place in the world. It was my home for a bit over 5 years and more importantly it’s the home of some pretty amazing bookshops. I had a few favourites during my time in Dublin, but today we’ll be going to Ireland’s west coast, to a little town called Westport and a bookshop like no other, Tertulia.

Tertulia describes itself as a magical place, which may or may not be a Harry Potter reference. Part of its magic is the story of its owners, Neil and Brid. In 1997, after Neil finished working on “Saving Private Ryan”, they drove up to Mayo in their camper van and at some point took a wrong turn. They ended up outside a dilapidated old school house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, had a cup of tea and thought what would it be like to live here, leave behind the madness of London, escaping to the ocean and see what happens. Well they put an offer that day on the school house and it was accepted. They’re still there to tell the story 23 years later. The bookshop felt to them like a natural progression and it opened its doors just a few years ago. Since then, despite a pandemic and being set in a small town with quite a few other bookshops around, Tertulia has become many people’s favourite place. So I sat down for a virtual cup of tea with Brid and Neil to hear more about their magical bookshop on the West coast of Ireland.