May 5, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode, I’m chatting with Vinny Browne from Charlie Byrne's Bookshop in the heart of Galway City, Ireland. At Charlie Byrne’s, you can explore their labyrinthine maze of over 100,000 books: new, second-hand, bargain, and antiquarian.
Vinny takes us behind the scenes of this beloved institution, revealing how its organic growth mirrors the evolution of Irish literary culture itself. "Books have a continuous life," he explains, describing the shop's mission to connect forgotten volumes with new readers who might not yet know they're searching for these exact stories.
What makes Charlie Byrne’s special transcends mere commerce; it's about creating community in an increasingly isolated world. Our conversation expands beyond Charlie Byrne’s to explore Ireland's extraordinary literary ecosystem, particularly how literary journals provide emerging writers their first publishing opportunities. This infrastructure has helped sustain Ireland's remarkable literary tradition throughout decades of cultural and economic change.
Discover why independent bookshops matter now more than ever as spaces of serendipitous discovery that algorithms can never replicate. If you're passionate about books, literary culture, or simply the power of community spaces to enrich our lives, this episode offers a heartwarming glimpse into a world where stories and people find each other in ways both unexpected and profound.
Ready to experience the magic of Charlie Byrne's? Follow The Bookshop Podcast for more conversations celebrating independent bookshops around the world.
The Blue Road – Edna O’Brien Story
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
bibliophile.
Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast.
Each week, I present interviewswith authors, independent
bookshop owners and booksellersfrom around the globe and
publishing professionals.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
(00:33):
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
You're listening to episode 290.
Before I get into the interview,I'd like to give a shout out to
one of my favorite bookshops,chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara
(00:57):
.
Thank you, greg and Jen and allthe staff there.
They supply my books for theLunch with an Author literary
series, and this week we haveMaggie Shipstead talking about
her fabulous book Great Circle.
And then we have Martha HallKelly on June 12th talking about
her new book the Martha'sVineyard Beach and Book Club.
And on July 10th I'm bringingTova Mervis chatting about her
new book we Would Never.
September 11th, we have AnneHood talking about the Stolen
(01:20):
Child.
October 9th, elizabeth Brinkand World's Greatest Detective.
And on November 13th, ivyPocota and her book these Women.
I hope to see you there.
For more information and topurchase your tickets, please go
to my website,wwwmandyjacksonbeverlycom.
Forward slash events.
(01:40):
Okay, here's this week'sinterview.
In this episode I'm chattingwith Vinnie Brown from Charlie
Burns Bookshop in the heart ofGalway City, ireland.
At Charlie Burns, you canexplore the labyrinthine maze of
over 100,000 books, newsecondhand, bargain and
antiquarian.
Hi, vinnie, and welcome to theshow.
(02:01):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you, Mandy.
It's a pleasure for us to beinvolved in a show like this
that has such an internationaland broad reach across the book
selling and book readingcommunity.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, thank you, vinnie.
That means a lot to hear yousay that.
I appreciate it.
Now let's start with the birthof Charlie Burns Bookshop.
What drew you to the store andwho inspired you to read?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
OK, well, the shop as it is now.
Charlie Burns was set up in1989.
So last year it was 35 years inbusiness, which was a
significant milestone.
I suppose it began veryorganically.
Every successful business, Isuppose, has its own
mythologized origin story, butin this case it's actually so
(02:50):
that Charlie set up the bookshopfrom a market stall books that
he was given by friends.
There was a time when it wasonly a box of books.
That was the stock of the shopand then it just kind of grew
gradually over maybe a summer ofbooks that was the stock of the
shop and then it just kind ofgrew gradually over maybe a
summer of 1989.
And then in the winter of thatyear, in November, charlie moved
(03:14):
to a very small premises onDominick Street which is just
beside the river here in Galway,and it began from there really
as a bricks and mortar store.
And that shop was very smallbut it was really well curated.
I mean, you can have a verysmall shop but you can have lots
of interesting books in it evenif your stock is very small.
And I went into that shop I wasa student in Go Away at the
(03:37):
time and I went into that shopand I can recognize straight
away that this was actuallysomething.
There was something interestinggoing on with this shop.
It had you know as much as youcould do in a small place, in a
small space.
It had you know differentsections Irish history, Irish
archaeology and Irish fictionand poetry.
(03:58):
All of that was all secondhandand you could see straight away
that there was a kind of carefor the stock that was in it and
it was very well priced.
So see straight away that therewas a kind of care for the
stock that was in it and it wasvery well priced.
So I started to go there as acustomer and I got to know
Charlie and and one day I askedhim for a job and he said well,
actually I do need somebody atthe moment.
(04:18):
The shop was so small that backin the day you couldn't have
two members of staff in the shopbecause there wouldn't have
been any room for customers.
It was very small and in factfor the first two years where we
were in that space we didn'thave a till.
We had a little cardboard boxwith cash in it and there was
only cash in those days.
(04:39):
Nobody had credit cards.
So it was kind of aninteresting thing you know when
you watch people coming in nowpaying with phones and watches
and all sorts of little things,cash is kind of on the slide a
little bit.
But yeah, that was itsbeginning and from then the shop
moved across the river intoMiddle Street, which is kind of
(05:01):
more the commercial end of thecity.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Is that like a high street or a main street?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It was off.
There's a main thoroughfarethat runs down the middle of
Galway called, imaginatively,shop Street and it is off that.
So it's a little tributary offthat street and it was a very
nice street to be in and we hadan upstairs, downstairs kind of
premises and we were there for acouple of years.
(05:30):
And then there was anotherbookshop across the road, um
called the shield and the gigbookshop, and we moved into that
space in 1995 and we've beenhere ever since and the shop um
has kind of grown organicallyover those years.
Uh, there was a shopping centerarea in in the space that we're
in now which is called the CornStore, and some premises came
(05:50):
up and we just kind of addedonto the shop as they come up.
So it was a very organic kindof growth really, you know,
which was good in a sense,because you know when you start
a business small, then you makesmaller mistakes initially.
By the time you can make biggermistakes you won't make them.
That's kind of the idea, Iguess.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And do you have two stores or just the one?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Just the one, just the one.
We have a warehouse out inOrnmore which is kind of a depot
for collecting books.
The shop is a kind of a hybridmodel.
We sell new books, we, the shopis a kind of all the time and
(06:51):
new stuff is always coming inand you'll never know what
you'll find and you'll neverknow what you'll be interested
in until you see it.
And that kind of an experience,mandy, is impossible to
replicate digitally oralgorithmically.
You just can't.
You can't do it, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
I completely agree with you andVinnie, who inspired you to
read.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, I guess my family really I mean everybody
in the house my father was a bigreader and my sister read a lot
as well and there was alwaysbooks around the house.
So it was kind of apparent tome early on that books are a
great escape route from thepressure cooker of living in a
(07:36):
family.
You could just disappear withthe book and by the time you
come back everything has kind ofbeen sorted and fixed and
calmed down and, whatever it is,life is always better with
books.
Also, we had a great library.
I grew up down in County Clarein a place called Dennis Diamond
and there was a library thererun by this fantastic lady
(07:59):
called Tessie Hill.
Anybody who is a certain agefrom that part of County Clare
would remember her.
She was just a brilliant oldlady who encouraged everybody to
read as much as they like, andif she found somebody like
myself who was kind ofinteresting, then she encouraged
it.
And then we had teachers andpeople like that.
So it was a kind of continualthing and after a while you just
(08:20):
knew that this was a fantasticway to spend your time.
You just knew that this was afantastic way to spend your time
.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, I would say.
Most of the authors whom I haveinterviewed have said that it
was either their parents orfamily or grandparents who
encouraged them to read.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But there's a heck of a lot of them that have said it
was their librarian and thoseplaces are so important as well.
I mean, I think historicallyeverybody understood how
important libraries were, butsometimes you think that maybe
the concept has been devalued asbooks got cheaper and more
available.
I suppose that maybe thelibrary was not as important as
(09:00):
it used to be, not true?
I mean?
It is actually more importantnow than ever, I think, because
it's a place for people togather, to do that very
important thing of deciding whatyou're going to read next.
You know so, and then having abookshop culture is as important
as that as well.
(09:20):
So the two things run very handin hand.
They're kind of in tandem.
And in many cases, for mothersand fathers as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So the two things run very hand in hand, they're kind
of in tandem and in many cases,for mothers and fathers who are
looking after children, thelibraries are a meeting place.
It's where they can meet upwith other moms or other dads
and feel supported.
Vinnie, I would love to hearabout your work as a radio
presenter.
What's the show called the ArtsShow radio?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
presenter.
And what's this show called theArts Show?
Yes, now, I did that show forabout 10 years, mandy, and it
was a fantastic thing to do.
I don't do it at the momentbecause the book selling world
is very busy and the art showtook up like one day a week to
(10:04):
kind of prepare it.
I mean, you, you kind of knowhow long these things uh, take
to do.
You know it, they kind offilter, they expand to fill the
space and the time that you have.
So, um, I don't do it from weekto week now, I still do an
occasional guest slot, but, um,it was a great experience to do
that for 10 years in terms ofthe people that you got to talk
(10:27):
to.
You know, a lot of people wouldcome to town, like musicians
and writers and actors, theaterpeople, poets.
Yeah, it was a wonderful,wonderful thing and it was a
great kind of adjunct to the dayjob as well, because you would
meet people and you'd hear aboutwhat people are going to go and
see and then you'd go and seeit, and then you'd talk about it
(10:49):
afterwards and then you'd talkabout it on the radio, which is
the importance of all of thosethings like live theatre
activities, live films groups ofpeople gathered in a room to
see something is still soimportant, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
While I was listening to you speak, I was thinking
about a documentary my husbandand I recently watched.
It was streaming on Netflix andit's called Join or Die.
The premise of the research isthat when we join a club or
group, it lifts us up andnurtures community, thereby
nurturing the cultural aspectsof the wider collective.
The documentary explores theidea that when countries are at
(11:29):
their strongest and theirkindest is when people are
involved with community, withclubs, and that when people
allow their memberships to drop,or they just let go of the
clubs that they were a part of,measures for happiness and joy
in that country dropped.
It is a wonderful documentaryto watch and it made me think
(11:51):
about book clubs and theimportance they play in
communities all over the world.
I'm lucky because I have thisconnection with like-minded
people all over the worldthrough books, through the
podcast, which is great, but Imissed that in-person connection
.
So I started the Lunch with anAuthor series, which is great,
but I missed that in-personconnection.
So I started the Lunch with anAuthor series which is now in
Santa Barbara, in California andLos Angeles, and for a while we
(12:14):
weren't together.
For three months we were tryingto find a new venue and the
first time we got together lastmonth, again, it was like one
big family just coming togetherand giving each other hugs and
talking about which books we'dread, and I think it makes a
difference.
You can feel it and I'm sureyou feel this great experience
through all the events you havein your bookshop.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yes, we do.
Oh well, I mean, I remember acustomer saying to us many, many
years ago that what you need tobe is a mixture of a very good
pub and an art center.
That's what your book shopshould be, you know, and have
books everywhere.
Obviously, of course it's not.
It's not a bad, uh, it's not abad template.
(12:58):
It's not a bad vision to aimtowards, because, like all of
the events that we have, well,nearly all, nearly all of them
are local writers and localauthors.
That's the kind of events thatwe like to have, because then it
is a community event and it isa thing where people are
(13:19):
together, the enjoyment thatpeople get out of the simplest
gatherings around something thatthey see as worthwhile, which
is like a book of whatever it is, a book of poems or a novel or
some nonfiction or a memoir orwhatever it is, the idea of
(13:44):
people gathering together tokind of mark that the event, of
most of the events are launches.
So it's a beginning of ajourney, of something, and it's
a kind of a celebratory thingand it makes the community less
atomized and, as you say fromthat program, people are happier
(14:06):
when they're less atomized andless individualized and less
isolated.
We're a community species.
You know we need those kind ofevents to function properly.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think yeah, and while we're speaking about this,
for anyone who is lonely and Iknow there are hundreds and
thousands of lonely people inthe world and I understand you
might be a little anxious aboutgoing to an event at a library
or an independent bookshop, butthe more you go, the easier it
becomes to speak with otherpeople.
(14:38):
You start to feel better andslowly you discover that you
don't want to miss any of theseevents because it warms your
heart.
You know, and I equate it towhen you think, oh my God, I got
to exercise.
But the more you startexercising, you realize that you
don't want to miss a day ofexercise because it works so
well for your brain and yourbody and everything.
(15:00):
It just helps you feel better.
So when you start to feelanxious about perhaps going to
an event and being surrounded bypeople you don't know, perhaps
think of it as exercising yourloneliness emotion.
Okay, now on your website youoffer a service I've not seen
before and that is to helpdevelop library connections.
Can you share more about thisand what led you to develop this
(15:23):
service?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There's a couple of things there, mandy.
Actually One of them is that wewill buy libraries, you know.
So it works from both ends thatyou know if somebody has a
large collection of books andthey wish to dispose of it, we
will.
We're interested in comingaround to your house and having
a look at it and buying it andgiving it another life.
(15:47):
You know, which is what mostpeople that have books in their
life, and that books are animportant part of their life,
they want to make sure that theydon't end up in a skip.
You know that that horrendousthing doesn't happen, that they
get a continuous life, andthat's what our bookshop is A
lot of.
It is about that idea of movingbooks on that somebody had
(16:13):
loved in the past and somebodyelse is looking for.
Even though they don't know ityet, the book is finding its way
to them.
So that's part of it.
But also we do kind of helppeople to put together libraries
if they're looking to do so.
We've done that in the pastwhere people have requested and
(16:34):
say well, you know, I have aninterest in Irish fiction from
the 19th century.
I'm missing whole swathes of it.
Help me to fill it up.
And then over a period of time,we can do that.
Um, we can also do that forschools, for school libraries.
We have some very expert umstaff here, um mave mcdonald,
(16:57):
who's our children's bookseller.
She is an unbelievable resourcein that regard and and she can
help schools to cover everythingthat they need.
It's a very gratifying thing todo, you know, to build up a
library for a couple of peopleor for a larger group of people
as well.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I think it's a great program that you offer,
especially for the schools.
I wrote down what you just saidabout books having a continuous
life.
I love those words.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, well, they do, because you know, sometimes
things have a certain kind oftime or a fashion or whatever
and then they disappear and forone reason or another they are
rediscovered or they are not.
But they are rediscovered, maybeindividually, by somebody who
comes upon something and theysay oh yeah, muriel Spark, she
(17:48):
was a really big figure in the1960s and 70s or 1950s when she
wrote all of those novels.
And then people like Ian Rankinrediscovered her in the 1980s
and 90s, talked about her andthen she got another lease of
life.
But it is often done on a muchsmaller level, where people just
(18:08):
pick up something that theyfind interesting and they go oh
yeah, nobody reads these novelsanymore.
But you know what, they'reactually really good, and that
begins a discussion among acouple of people and then you
know that person's work kind ofcomes back into focus a little.
And all of that is reallyimportant because that broadens
the palette, because then you'renot just talking about what's
(18:30):
coming out and you're not at themercy of the publishing
behemoth.
That is the current and thenext coming thing.
So I mean the past is asimportant as the future in that
regard.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
When you're curating the store and you have a used
book with one title and the sametitle in a new book, do you put
them together or do youseparate them?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I tend to separate them because it's kind of easier
to run the shop that way,because you know, sometimes if
you put secondhand and olderbooks beside new books, then it
might be difficult to returnthem if you ever need to do that
, you know.
So if, if you have a newsection at the very front of the
shop and then the rest of theshop is second-hand and
(19:16):
remaindered as well, I mean thatthat's kind of an important
thing as well.
You know the way that books areout in the world for a certain
period of time and they may havestopped selling at that full
price but you know they're stillan important book and if you
drop the price then they'llstill have another life as well
and that continues.
And we kind of buy remainderbooks from all over the world
(19:38):
and you know we get them fromAmerica and from the UK and from
anywhere we can really.
So that's an important aspectof it as well.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And for our listeners , a remaindered book or
remainders they're printed booksthat are no longer selling well
and whose remaining unsoldcopies are liquidated by the
publisher at greatly reducedprices, which, of course, then
the bookseller can hand on tothe customer.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I would love to hear about some of your local Galway
authors would love to hear aboutsome of your local Galway
authors as a whole.
Okay, well, we're veryfortunate that we have some
fantastic local writers here.
We had a famous man calledWalter Macken who wrote
historical fiction and, Isuppose, contemporary sagas set
in the west of Ireland.
This would have been back inthe 1960s and 70s and he wrote a
(20:24):
great collection of Irishhistorical novels and it's
called a historical trilogy andit's a wonderful series of books
and it's a great introductionto the history of art.
I often give it to people.
Now they've been out of printfor a good number of years.
The great news is they're nowback in print from this year and
(20:47):
the trilogy is now availableagain for a whole new generation
of people and it still works.
It's amazing.
You know, good fiction, goodhistorical fiction, never gets
old and that's a great exampleof it, and we've been talking
about maybe getting them donefor so long and now it's
happened, so we're delighted.
We have a prime novelist calledken brun who's quite famous in
(21:09):
america.
His main character is is, uh,an ex-guard.
He's an ex-policeman an irishpoliceman's called a guard he's
kind of a hard child privateinvestigator, I suppose you'd
call him.
But he's got a heart of goldand he's got a great, uh reading
habit.
So there's lots of books in thebooks and he comes into the
(21:32):
shop here and he hasconversations with me and
charlie and noreen and otherpeople who work here in the
books.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So, uh, that's great fun oh, that's fun, and can you
tell us the names of some of hisbooks?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
The first one is called the Guards.
I think there's about maybe 25books in total, but there's
about 15 of them are the JackTaylor books and this was the
most recent one.
It's called Galway,confidential.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I was just looking at one of my bookshelves and I
actually have that book.
I can't wait to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
All of them have got Galway in the title, which is a
clever piece of branding, butit's great.
They're very popular in the USand they're published by the
Mysterious Press.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yes, I've had Otto Pinzler on the show and they're
a great little press and a funlittle bookshop too.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Oh, they're a fantastic publisher and the new
one which we haven't got yet,but we'll have it in about a
week's time.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I think that one's called Galway's Edge.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yes, and we're really looking forward to that one as
well.
And because we feature and theshop is a character in the books
, he keeps saying that he'sgoing to make us do something
terrible, but he hasn't done soyet.
We're hoping we can stay on theright side of the law.
That's Ken Brown, and there wasa TV series of them done as
(22:53):
well, and I think they used tobe on Netflix US.
I don't know if that's stillthe case now.
I should have checked thatbefore I came on, but we have a
huge array of local talent, ofshort story writers in Galway.
We have a great selection ofpeople who are really adept at
it, People like Claire LouiseBennett, who is she was a New
(23:15):
York Times winning writer.
Her last novel was calledCheckout 19, but her first
collection was it was acollection of stories called
Pond was.
It was a collection of storiescalled Pond, but it was actually
kind of a novel in stories aswell, but incredibly creative
and beautifully, a beautifullyoriginal style.
We have a lady called MaryCostolo who lives in Canvara,
(23:37):
which is about a half an hour'sdrive from the city.
Her most recent collection ofstories is called Barcelona, and
Mary is one of the best of theIrish short story writers at a
time when the Irish short storyis doing extraordinarily well.
So I mean we're blessed reallywith the amount of local talent
(24:00):
that we have, and serious localtalent.
You know, elaine Feeney isanother name that we like to
brandish.
Elaine has a new novel comingout called I Will Go Mad In my
Own Way, which is a great title,which is a third novel from
Elaine.
She's a fantastic talent.
(24:20):
Claire Louise Kiefer, aFranco-German writer.
She published the firstcollection of stories which we
launched in the shop about aweek and a half ago and those
are, you know, the announcementof another new and vibrant
talent.
So there's no end to thefreshness and vibrancy of the
local writing scene.
(24:41):
It's very different from how itwas 35 years ago when the shop
started, which I suppose isreflected in the Irish kind of
writing scene at large.
There's a confidence andthere's an ability and a kind of
owningness of how people feelabout where they are in the
(25:03):
world and it's it's a great time, a really rich time in Irish
writing.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Well, let's face it, ireland is known for their short
stories through centuries ofshort storytelling.
Yeah, I've had Jan Carson andLucy Caldwell on the show and
they've both turned me on to alot of wonderful Irish writers.
Contemporary Irish writersClaire Kilroy, colin Barrett.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Okay, there we go.
All of those great.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, the Irish writing scene is absolutely
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I think a lot of that has to do, mandy, with the
magazine culture in Ireland.
There's a lot of journals.
There's even more now thanthere was pre-2020.
The pandemic unleashed anotherfresh round of new journals.
(25:56):
But I mean there was such ahealthy ecosystem of journals
where people could get the firstcouple of publications could
happen and they would beemboldened.
I suppose you know the, thefirst place that you get
published is so important it.
It gives you the encouragementto stay at it and then, you know
(26:18):
, maybe a year or two down theline you might get the first
collection of stories and thenthat might need to to the novel
in in a couple of yearssubsequent to that.
But you know there's.
There's journals like theStinging Fly for instance.
So many amazing writers havecome out of that stable.
Mary Costler was one of themthat we've mentioned already,
(26:39):
and Clare Louise as well, andKevin Barry and Colin Barrett
that you mentioned, danielleMcLachlan, a wonderful short
story writer.
So many people have come out ofthat journal, but there's so
many others as well.
But the, the, the, the healthof the, the whole Irish writing
(26:59):
scene, I think is certainly hasa huge amount to do with the
encouragement that people feelwith, with, with being published
.
First, you know, and thenpeople feel, okay, well, if I
have a story in the Sting andFly, then I have something.
You know, it is anencouragement, but it's a
(27:21):
serious encouragement because somany great writers have been
down that road already.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I definitely think the magazine culture in
Ireland has really helpedintroduce readers to these new
young Irish writers.
I've got a question Do you sellthe Stinging Fly in the
bookshop?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Oh, we do Absolutely, and we sell lots of them, you
know, and there are so manyothers.
There's the Poetry Ireland,which is one of the oldest ones,
and that was such a greatencouragement for all of the
poets over the last 40 years.
Again, the first encouragement,the first thing to happen is I
(28:02):
have had a poem in PoetryIreland and everybody goes, oh,
all right, okay, well, you'rekind of on the road at that
point.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Vinnie, what keeps you in Galway?
Tell me about its magic.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, it's a very artistic kind of city and it's a
city that is full of water.
There's water everywhere.
There's a lake behind us, lochCarb, which is one of the
biggest lakes in Ireland, andthe river that flows out of the
lake into the sea, which runsright down through the middle of
the city and has loads oftributaries that goes off into
(28:36):
canals.
so it's a city of water and it'sa beautifully light place with
all of that water around theplace.
And over the last, you know, 30years there have been huge
artistic companies that havedeveloped here, like Druid
Theatre Company.
They're a kind of a nationaltheatre in all but name and they
(29:02):
have had massive successes allover the world really.
But everything they do startshere, so the very first people
to see it are the people ofGalway and then it goes out into
the world.
Martin McDonagh, his plays werefirst kind of.
He was kind of discovered byDrew, the theatre company, and
(29:24):
then the amazing Irishplaywrights like Tom Murphy and
many, many others.
I've given the city, I think, acultural heft that for a city of
its size you know it's lessthan 100,000 people live here
but it has that feeling thatthere's something happening.
There's always a festivalaround the corner.
(29:47):
We have a literary festival,the Courts International
Festival, which happens in Aprilevery year.
That's coming up very shortlyand the place will be awash with
people of a major literarystripe and that's a great event.
And then there are things likethe Arts Festival which happens
(30:08):
in Galway every July, which isthe biggest arts festival in
Ireland, and then there's a filmfestival that happens the week
before that, which is like amajor event as well.
So there's lots going on.
Culturally it's a rich place.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Plus, you have a wonderful university in Galway.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
We do.
There's about 25,000, 30,000students here and that gives a
great energy and a sense ofusefulness and hope, I think, to
the proceedings, and havingthat many young people is a
great addition to any city,particularly a city of this size
(30:51):
.
And then there's a lot ofvisitors come here during the
summer months and in fact it'skind of a year-round thing now
that there's tourists cominghere all of the time, not
overrun by tourism, but it's avery significant thing.
One of the great things aboutGalway is the conversations you
can have on the street.
You can meet anybody and youcan stand there and talk.
(31:16):
I know this probably happensanywhere in Ireland, but I think
particularly in Galway, you'llend up having discussions with
people that are astoundinglyinterested and involved.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
So you won't go short for a friend in Galway.
You will not.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
No, you will not.
That's one of the great thingsand there's a great cultural
life to the whole place.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Okay, well, let's talk about books.
What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
At the moment.
I am reading a couple of things.
Now there is a new book bysomebody who would be very
familiar to audiences in Americacalled Colin McCann.
He won the National Book Awardwith Let the Great World Spin
some years ago.
I happened to be in New York atthe time when that was going on
.
I ended up at the after showparty of that and that was on
(32:04):
for quite a while.
What a gift that was to bethere in that very moment.
This is Colm's new book.
It's called Twist.
It's about the very peculiarfact that not very many people
know is that the internet isvery dependent on undersea
cables and a lot of themconverge on the south coast of
(32:27):
Ireland, which is why oursecurity issues have become an
item of kind of world importancereally, because the Internet is
right outside our door.
Promoting this book, but it's amost interesting idea that very
(32:55):
many people are not at allaware of, because it's the idea
that the internet can be asprecariously positioned as that.
I mean it's almost like a 19thcentury kind of idea where you
lay under C cables.
You don't think that that'spart of the digital world, but
it actually is and you know itcan be sabotaged and it can be
interfered with and that wouldhave catastrophic results for it
(33:21):
really, would you know for howwe live our lives.
So that's a very interestingbook from Colm.
That's a very interesting bookfrom Colm.
This is Róisín Ó Danann's bookNesting.
This is a great novel from awriter that many people wouldn't
have heard of, but it's beenshortlisted for quite a number
of awards and it's a verycontemporary novel and it's a
(33:43):
novel about what's happening nowreally, you know, in Ireland.
It's a woman fleeing from anabusive relationship, but she's
also kind of trapped in.
There's a housing crisis inIreland at the moment.
I think there's a housingcrisis probably everywhere in
the world, but it's particularlyacute in Ireland at the moment
(34:04):
because we had a bit of a crisisin our construction industry in
2008 and it never reallyrecovered from that, so we
haven't been building houseslike we should have been and
it's been very difficult forpeople who can't afford to get
onto the housing ladder, andthat reflects that as well, and
it's a very kind of keen look atthat, and it's great to great
(34:27):
to to see novelists focusing onthe now, you know, on what's
happening right now, which youknow.
A lot of them maybe shy awayfrom, because it's a difficult
thing to get right.
Perhaps you know, you thinkmaybe you might just be going up
a cul-de-sac and it won't readthat freshly in a couple of
years' time, but I think thatshe's done a great job at that.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And kudos to the publisher too for taking it on.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Absolutely yeah, it's a great piece of work and
Roisin is, as I say, nominatedfor a number of awards, so it'll
be interesting to see if herbravery gets rewarded, as it
should be, I think.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Oh, that would be wonderful.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Well, vinnie, it's been great chatting with you.
I'm going to be in Ireland inJune, but I don't think I'm
going to get to Galway.
Hopefully at Christmas I'll popin and say hi and buy some
books from you about it.
And, um, yeah, the, the, theirish, uh, writing world is as
healthy, thanks to god, as it itever was.
I, I came from the cinema thereum earlier actually, I went off
(35:38):
to see a new documentary aboutthe great edna o'brien.
The film is called the blueroad, so I, I would, uh, I would
urge people to keep an eye outfor it.
It's an amazing piece of workabout an amazing Irish
personality and an amazing Irishwriter.
(35:58):
Edna died only last year, so Imean, she has an incredible long
and fruitful career.
An amazing lady, you know,following on also from people
like John McGahern and reallymassive figures of Irish writing
(36:19):
for the last part of the 20thcentury, and then people like
Roddy Doyle and Joseph O'Connor,and then the newer generation
of writers like Sally Rooney andGarrett Carr, who has a new
book just published, and ColinWalsh.
It's endless, thankfullyendless.
We would need to lead severallives for all of the books that
(36:44):
we would like to read.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yes, isn't that the truth, Finney?
What time is it over there?
It must be getting late.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It's coming up to six o'clock now, so it's time to
maybe batten down the hatchesand visit one of those
hustleries around the cornerthat are so sustaining to our
literary culture as well as toeverything else.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Enjoy yourself, vinnie, and thanks again for
being on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Okay, mandy, all the best, Bye-bye.
You've been listening to myconversation with Vinnie Brown
from Charlie Burns Bookshop inthe heart of Galway City,
ireland.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
(37:26):
To find out more about theBookshop Podcast, go to
thebookshoppodcastcom and makesure to subscribe and leave a
review wherever you listen tothe show.
You can also follow me at MandyJackson Beverly on X, instagram
and Facebook and on YouTube atthe Bookshop Podcast.
If you have a favorite indiebookshop that you'd like to
(37:49):
suggest we have on the podcast,I'd love to hear from you via
the contact form atthebookshoppodcastcom.
The Bookshop Podcast is writtenand produced by me, mandy
Jackson-Beverly, theme musicprovided by Brian Beverly,
executive assistant to Mandy,adrienne Otterhahn, and graphic
design by Frances Perala.
(38:09):
Thanks for listening and I'llsee you next time.
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
bibliophile.
Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast.
Each week, I present interviewswith authors, independent
bookshop owners and booksellersfrom around the globe and
publishing professionals.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
(00:33):
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
You're listening to episode 290.
Before I get into the interview,I'd like to give a shout out to
one of my favorite bookshops,chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara
(00:57):
.
Thank you, greg and Jen and allthe staff there.
They supply my books for theLunch with an Author literary
series, and this week we haveMaggie Shipstead talking about
her fabulous book Great Circle.
And then we have Martha HallKelly on June 12th talking about
her new book the Martha'sVineyard Beach and Book Club.
And on July 10th I'm bringingTova Mervis chatting about her
new book we Would Never.
September 11th, we have AnneHood talking about the Stolen
(01:20):
Child.
October 9th, elizabeth Brinkand World's Greatest Detective.
And on November 13th, ivyPocota and her book these Women.
I hope to see you there.
For more information and topurchase your tickets, please go
to my website,wwwmandyjacksonbeverlycom.
Forward slash events.
(01:40):
Okay, here's this week'sinterview.
In this episode I'm chattingwith Vinnie Brown from Charlie
Burns Bookshop in the heart ofGalway City, ireland.
At Charlie Burns, you canexplore the labyrinthine maze of
over 100,000 books, newsecondhand, bargain and
antiquarian.
Hi, vinnie, and welcome to theshow.
(02:01):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Thank you, Mandy.
It's a pleasure for us to beinvolved in a show like this
that has such an internationaland broad reach across the book
selling and book readingcommunity.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, thank you, vinnie.
That means a lot to hear yousay that.
I appreciate it.
Now let's start with the birthof Charlie Burns Bookshop.
What drew you to the store andwho inspired you to read?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
OK, well, the shop as it is now.
Charlie Burns was set up in1989.
So last year it was 35 years inbusiness, which was a
significant milestone.
I suppose it began veryorganically.
Every successful business, Isuppose, has its own
mythologized origin story, butin this case it's actually so
(02:50):
that Charlie set up the bookshopfrom a market stall books that
he was given by friends.
There was a time when it wasonly a box of books.
That was the stock of the shopand then it just kind of grew
gradually over maybe a summer ofbooks that was the stock of the
shop and then it just kind ofgrew gradually over maybe a
summer of 1989.
And then in the winter of thatyear, in November, charlie moved
(03:14):
to a very small premises onDominick Street which is just
beside the river here in Galway,and it began from there really
as a bricks and mortar store.
And that shop was very smallbut it was really well curated.
I mean, you can have a verysmall shop but you can have lots
of interesting books in it evenif your stock is very small.
And I went into that shop I wasa student in Go Away at the
(03:37):
time and I went into that shopand I can recognize straight
away that this was actuallysomething.
There was something interestinggoing on with this shop.
It had you know as much as youcould do in a small place, in a
small space.
It had you know differentsections Irish history, Irish
archaeology and Irish fictionand poetry.
(03:58):
All of that was all secondhandand you could see straight away
that there was a kind of carefor the stock that was in it and
it was very well priced.
So see straight away that therewas a kind of care for the
stock that was in it and it wasvery well priced.
So I started to go there as acustomer and I got to know
Charlie and and one day I askedhim for a job and he said well,
actually I do need somebody atthe moment.
(04:18):
The shop was so small that backin the day you couldn't have
two members of staff in the shopbecause there wouldn't have
been any room for customers.
It was very small and in factfor the first two years where we
were in that space we didn'thave a till.
We had a little cardboard boxwith cash in it and there was
only cash in those days.
(04:39):
Nobody had credit cards.
So it was kind of aninteresting thing you know when
you watch people coming in nowpaying with phones and watches
and all sorts of little things,cash is kind of on the slide a
little bit.
But yeah, that was itsbeginning and from then the shop
moved across the river intoMiddle Street, which is kind of
(05:01):
more the commercial end of thecity.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Is that like a high street or a main street?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It was off.
There's a main thoroughfarethat runs down the middle of
Galway called, imaginatively,shop Street and it is off that.
So it's a little tributary offthat street and it was a very
nice street to be in and we hadan upstairs, downstairs kind of
premises and we were there for acouple of years.
(05:30):
And then there was anotherbookshop across the road, um
called the shield and the gigbookshop, and we moved into that
space in 1995 and we've beenhere ever since and the shop um
has kind of grown organicallyover those years.
Uh, there was a shopping centerarea in in the space that we're
in now which is called the CornStore, and some premises came
(05:50):
up and we just kind of addedonto the shop as they come up.
So it was a very organic kindof growth really, you know,
which was good in a sense,because you know when you start
a business small, then you makesmaller mistakes initially.
By the time you can make biggermistakes you won't make them.
That's kind of the idea, Iguess.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And do you have two stores or just the one?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Just the one, just the one.
We have a warehouse out inOrnmore which is kind of a depot
for collecting books.
The shop is a kind of a hybridmodel.
We sell new books, we, the shopis a kind of all the time and
(06:51):
new stuff is always coming inand you'll never know what
you'll find and you'll neverknow what you'll be interested
in until you see it.
And that kind of an experience,mandy, is impossible to
replicate digitally oralgorithmically.
You just can't.
You can't do it, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
I completely agree with you andVinnie, who inspired you to
read.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, I guess my family really I mean everybody
in the house my father was a bigreader and my sister read a lot
as well and there was alwaysbooks around the house.
So it was kind of apparent tome early on that books are a
great escape route from thepressure cooker of living in a
(07:36):
family.
You could just disappear withthe book and by the time you
come back everything has kind ofbeen sorted and fixed and
calmed down and, whatever it is,life is always better with
books.
Also, we had a great library.
I grew up down in County Clarein a place called Dennis Diamond
and there was a library thererun by this fantastic lady
(07:59):
called Tessie Hill.
Anybody who is a certain agefrom that part of County Clare
would remember her.
She was just a brilliant oldlady who encouraged everybody to
read as much as they like, andif she found somebody like
myself who was kind ofinteresting, then she encouraged
it.
And then we had teachers andpeople like that.
So it was a kind of continualthing and after a while you just
(08:20):
knew that this was a fantasticway to spend your time.
You just knew that this was afantastic way to spend your time
.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, I would say.
Most of the authors whom I haveinterviewed have said that it
was either their parents orfamily or grandparents who
encouraged them to read.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But there's a heck of a lot of them that have said it
was their librarian and thoseplaces are so important as well.
I mean, I think historicallyeverybody understood how
important libraries were, butsometimes you think that maybe
the concept has been devalued asbooks got cheaper and more
available.
I suppose that maybe thelibrary was not as important as
(09:00):
it used to be, not true?
I mean?
It is actually more importantnow than ever, I think, because
it's a place for people togather, to do that very
important thing of deciding whatyou're going to read next.
You know so, and then having abookshop culture is as important
as that as well.
(09:20):
So the two things run very handin hand.
They're kind of in tandem.
And in many cases, for mothersand fathers as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So the two things run very hand in hand, they're kind
of in tandem and in many cases,for mothers and fathers who are
looking after children, thelibraries are a meeting place.
It's where they can meet upwith other moms or other dads
and feel supported.
Vinnie, I would love to hearabout your work as a radio
presenter.
What's the show called the ArtsShow radio?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
presenter.
And what's this show called theArts Show?
Yes, now, I did that show forabout 10 years, mandy, and it
was a fantastic thing to do.
I don't do it at the momentbecause the book selling world
is very busy and the art showtook up like one day a week to
(10:04):
kind of prepare it.
I mean, you, you kind of knowhow long these things uh, take
to do.
You know it, they kind offilter, they expand to fill the
space and the time that you have.
So, um, I don't do it from weekto week now, I still do an
occasional guest slot, but, um,it was a great experience to do
that for 10 years in terms ofthe people that you got to talk
(10:27):
to.
You know, a lot of people wouldcome to town, like musicians
and writers and actors, theaterpeople, poets.
Yeah, it was a wonderful,wonderful thing and it was a
great kind of adjunct to the dayjob as well, because you would
meet people and you'd hear aboutwhat people are going to go and
see and then you'd go and seeit, and then you'd talk about it
(10:49):
afterwards and then you'd talkabout it on the radio, which is
the importance of all of thosethings like live theatre
activities, live films groups ofpeople gathered in a room to
see something is still soimportant, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
While I was listening to you speak, I was thinking
about a documentary my husbandand I recently watched.
It was streaming on Netflix andit's called Join or Die.
The premise of the research isthat when we join a club or
group, it lifts us up andnurtures community, thereby
nurturing the cultural aspectsof the wider collective.
The documentary explores theidea that when countries are at
(11:29):
their strongest and theirkindest is when people are
involved with community, withclubs, and that when people
allow their memberships to drop,or they just let go of the
clubs that they were a part of,measures for happiness and joy
in that country dropped.
It is a wonderful documentaryto watch and it made me think
(11:51):
about book clubs and theimportance they play in
communities all over the world.
I'm lucky because I have thisconnection with like-minded
people all over the worldthrough books, through the
podcast, which is great, but Imissed that in-person connection
.
So I started the Lunch with anAuthor series, which is great,
but I missed that in-personconnection.
So I started the Lunch with anAuthor series which is now in
Santa Barbara, in California andLos Angeles, and for a while we
(12:14):
weren't together.
For three months we were tryingto find a new venue and the
first time we got together lastmonth, again, it was like one
big family just coming togetherand giving each other hugs and
talking about which books we'dread, and I think it makes a
difference.
You can feel it and I'm sureyou feel this great experience
through all the events you havein your bookshop.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yes, we do.
Oh well, I mean, I remember acustomer saying to us many, many
years ago that what you need tobe is a mixture of a very good
pub and an art center.
That's what your book shopshould be, you know, and have
books everywhere.
Obviously, of course it's not.
It's not a bad, uh, it's not abad template.
(12:58):
It's not a bad vision to aimtowards, because, like all of
the events that we have, well,nearly all, nearly all of them
are local writers and localauthors.
That's the kind of events thatwe like to have, because then it
is a community event and it isa thing where people are
(13:19):
together, the enjoyment thatpeople get out of the simplest
gatherings around something thatthey see as worthwhile, which
is like a book of whatever it is, a book of poems or a novel or
some nonfiction or a memoir orwhatever it is, the idea of
(13:44):
people gathering together tokind of mark that the event, of
most of the events are launches.
So it's a beginning of ajourney, of something, and it's
a kind of a celebratory thingand it makes the community less
atomized and, as you say fromthat program, people are happier
(14:06):
when they're less atomized andless individualized and less
isolated.
We're a community species.
You know we need those kind ofevents to function properly.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think yeah, and while we're speaking about this,
for anyone who is lonely and Iknow there are hundreds and
thousands of lonely people inthe world and I understand you
might be a little anxious aboutgoing to an event at a library
or an independent bookshop, butthe more you go, the easier it
becomes to speak with otherpeople.
(14:38):
You start to feel better andslowly you discover that you
don't want to miss any of theseevents because it warms your
heart.
You know, and I equate it towhen you think, oh my God, I got
to exercise.
But the more you startexercising, you realize that you
don't want to miss a day ofexercise because it works so
well for your brain and yourbody and everything.
(15:00):
It just helps you feel better.
So when you start to feelanxious about perhaps going to
an event and being surrounded bypeople you don't know, perhaps
think of it as exercising yourloneliness emotion.
Okay, now on your website youoffer a service I've not seen
before and that is to helpdevelop library connections.
Can you share more about thisand what led you to develop this
(15:23):
service?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There's a couple of things there, mandy.
Actually One of them is that wewill buy libraries, you know.
So it works from both ends thatyou know if somebody has a
large collection of books andthey wish to dispose of it, we
will.
We're interested in comingaround to your house and having
a look at it and buying it andgiving it another life.
(15:47):
You know, which is what mostpeople that have books in their
life, and that books are animportant part of their life,
they want to make sure that theydon't end up in a skip.
You know that that horrendousthing doesn't happen, that they
get a continuous life, andthat's what our bookshop is A
lot of.
It is about that idea of movingbooks on that somebody had
(16:13):
loved in the past and somebodyelse is looking for.
Even though they don't know ityet, the book is finding its way
to them.
So that's part of it.
But also we do kind of helppeople to put together libraries
if they're looking to do so.
We've done that in the pastwhere people have requested and
(16:34):
say well, you know, I have aninterest in Irish fiction from
the 19th century.
I'm missing whole swathes of it.
Help me to fill it up.
And then over a period of time,we can do that.
Um, we can also do that forschools, for school libraries.
We have some very expert umstaff here, um mave mcdonald,
(16:57):
who's our children's bookseller.
She is an unbelievable resourcein that regard and and she can
help schools to cover everythingthat they need.
It's a very gratifying thing todo, you know, to build up a
library for a couple of peopleor for a larger group of people
as well.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I think it's a great program that you offer,
especially for the schools.
I wrote down what you just saidabout books having a continuous
life.
I love those words.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, well, they do, because you know, sometimes
things have a certain kind oftime or a fashion or whatever
and then they disappear and forone reason or another they are
rediscovered or they are not.
But they are rediscovered, maybeindividually, by somebody who
comes upon something and theysay oh yeah, muriel Spark, she
(17:48):
was a really big figure in the1960s and 70s or 1950s when she
wrote all of those novels.
And then people like Ian Rankinrediscovered her in the 1980s
and 90s, talked about her andthen she got another lease of
life.
But it is often done on a muchsmaller level, where people just
(18:08):
pick up something that theyfind interesting and they go oh
yeah, nobody reads these novelsanymore.
But you know what, they'reactually really good, and that
begins a discussion among acouple of people and then you
know that person's work kind ofcomes back into focus a little.
And all of that is reallyimportant because that broadens
the palette, because then you'renot just talking about what's
(18:30):
coming out and you're not at themercy of the publishing
behemoth.
That is the current and thenext coming thing.
So I mean the past is asimportant as the future in that
regard.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
When you're curating the store and you have a used
book with one title and the sametitle in a new book, do you put
them together or do youseparate them?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I tend to separate them because it's kind of easier
to run the shop that way,because you know, sometimes if
you put secondhand and olderbooks beside new books, then it
might be difficult to returnthem if you ever need to do that
, you know.
So if, if you have a newsection at the very front of the
shop and then the rest of theshop is second-hand and
(19:16):
remaindered as well, I mean thatthat's kind of an important
thing as well.
You know the way that books areout in the world for a certain
period of time and they may havestopped selling at that full
price but you know they're stillan important book and if you
drop the price then they'llstill have another life as well
and that continues.
And we kind of buy remainderbooks from all over the world
(19:38):
and you know we get them fromAmerica and from the UK and from
anywhere we can really.
So that's an important aspectof it as well.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And for our listeners , a remaindered book or
remainders they're printed booksthat are no longer selling well
and whose remaining unsoldcopies are liquidated by the
publisher at greatly reducedprices, which, of course, then
the bookseller can hand on tothe customer.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I would love to hear about some of your local Galway
authors would love to hear aboutsome of your local Galway
authors as a whole.
Okay, well, we're veryfortunate that we have some
fantastic local writers here.
We had a famous man calledWalter Macken who wrote
historical fiction and, Isuppose, contemporary sagas set
in the west of Ireland.
This would have been back inthe 1960s and 70s and he wrote a
(20:24):
great collection of Irishhistorical novels and it's
called a historical trilogy andit's a wonderful series of books
and it's a great introductionto the history of art.
I often give it to people.
Now they've been out of printfor a good number of years.
The great news is they're nowback in print from this year and
(20:47):
the trilogy is now availableagain for a whole new generation
of people and it still works.
It's amazing.
You know, good fiction, goodhistorical fiction, never gets
old and that's a great exampleof it, and we've been talking
about maybe getting them donefor so long and now it's
happened, so we're delighted.
We have a prime novelist calledken brun who's quite famous in
(21:09):
america.
His main character is is, uh,an ex-guard.
He's an ex-policeman an irishpoliceman's called a guard he's
kind of a hard child privateinvestigator, I suppose you'd
call him.
But he's got a heart of goldand he's got a great, uh reading
habit.
So there's lots of books in thebooks and he comes into the
(21:32):
shop here and he hasconversations with me and
charlie and noreen and otherpeople who work here in the
books.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So, uh, that's great fun oh, that's fun, and can you
tell us the names of some of hisbooks?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
The first one is called the Guards.
I think there's about maybe 25books in total, but there's
about 15 of them are the JackTaylor books and this was the
most recent one.
It's called Galway,confidential.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I was just looking at one of my bookshelves and I
actually have that book.
I can't wait to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
All of them have got Galway in the title, which is a
clever piece of branding, butit's great.
They're very popular in the USand they're published by the
Mysterious Press.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yes, I've had Otto Pinzler on the show and they're
a great little press and a funlittle bookshop too.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Oh, they're a fantastic publisher and the new
one which we haven't got yet,but we'll have it in about a
week's time.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I think that one's called Galway's Edge.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yes, and we're really looking forward to that one as
well.
And because we feature and theshop is a character in the books
, he keeps saying that he'sgoing to make us do something
terrible, but he hasn't done soyet.
We're hoping we can stay on theright side of the law.
That's Ken Brown, and there wasa TV series of them done as
(22:53):
well, and I think they used tobe on Netflix US.
I don't know if that's stillthe case now.
I should have checked thatbefore I came on, but we have a
huge array of local talent, ofshort story writers in Galway.
We have a great selection ofpeople who are really adept at
it, People like Claire LouiseBennett, who is she was a New
(23:15):
York Times winning writer.
Her last novel was calledCheckout 19, but her first
collection was it was acollection of stories called
Pond was.
It was a collection of storiescalled Pond, but it was actually
kind of a novel in stories aswell, but incredibly creative
and beautifully, a beautifullyoriginal style.
We have a lady called MaryCostolo who lives in Canvara,
(23:37):
which is about a half an hour'sdrive from the city.
Her most recent collection ofstories is called Barcelona, and
Mary is one of the best of theIrish short story writers at a
time when the Irish short storyis doing extraordinarily well.
So I mean we're blessed reallywith the amount of local talent
(24:00):
that we have, and serious localtalent.
You know, elaine Feeney isanother name that we like to
brandish.
Elaine has a new novel comingout called I Will Go Mad In my
Own Way, which is a great title,which is a third novel from
Elaine.
She's a fantastic talent.
(24:20):
Claire Louise Kiefer, aFranco-German writer.
She published the firstcollection of stories which we
launched in the shop about aweek and a half ago and those
are, you know, the announcementof another new and vibrant
talent.
So there's no end to thefreshness and vibrancy of the
local writing scene.
(24:41):
It's very different from how itwas 35 years ago when the shop
started, which I suppose isreflected in the Irish kind of
writing scene at large.
There's a confidence andthere's an ability and a kind of
owningness of how people feelabout where they are in the
(25:03):
world and it's it's a great time, a really rich time in Irish
writing.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Well, let's face it, ireland is known for their short
stories through centuries ofshort storytelling.
Yeah, I've had Jan Carson andLucy Caldwell on the show and
they've both turned me on to alot of wonderful Irish writers.
Contemporary Irish writersClaire Kilroy, colin Barrett.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Okay, there we go.
All of those great.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, the Irish writing scene is absolutely
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I think a lot of that has to do, mandy, with the
magazine culture in Ireland.
There's a lot of journals.
There's even more now thanthere was pre-2020.
The pandemic unleashed anotherfresh round of new journals.
(25:56):
But I mean there was such ahealthy ecosystem of journals
where people could get the firstcouple of publications could
happen and they would beemboldened.
I suppose you know the, thefirst place that you get
published is so important it.
It gives you the encouragementto stay at it and then, you know
(26:18):
, maybe a year or two down theline you might get the first
collection of stories and thenthat might need to to the novel
in in a couple of yearssubsequent to that.
But you know there's.
There's journals like theStinging Fly for instance.
So many amazing writers havecome out of that stable.
Mary Costler was one of themthat we've mentioned already,
(26:39):
and Clare Louise as well, andKevin Barry and Colin Barrett
that you mentioned, danielleMcLachlan, a wonderful short
story writer.
So many people have come out ofthat journal, but there's so
many others as well.
But the, the, the, the healthof the, the whole Irish writing
(26:59):
scene, I think is certainly hasa huge amount to do with the
encouragement that people feelwith, with, with being published
.
First, you know, and thenpeople feel, okay, well, if I
have a story in the Sting andFly, then I have something.
You know, it is anencouragement, but it's a
(27:21):
serious encouragement because somany great writers have been
down that road already.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I definitely think the magazine culture in
Ireland has really helpedintroduce readers to these new
young Irish writers.
I've got a question Do you sellthe Stinging Fly in the
bookshop?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Oh, we do Absolutely, and we sell lots of them, you
know, and there are so manyothers.
There's the Poetry Ireland,which is one of the oldest ones,
and that was such a greatencouragement for all of the
poets over the last 40 years.
Again, the first encouragement,the first thing to happen is I
(28:02):
have had a poem in PoetryIreland and everybody goes, oh,
all right, okay, well, you'rekind of on the road at that
point.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Vinnie, what keeps you in Galway?
Tell me about its magic.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, it's a very artistic kind of city and it's a
city that is full of water.
There's water everywhere.
There's a lake behind us, lochCarb, which is one of the
biggest lakes in Ireland, andthe river that flows out of the
lake into the sea, which runsright down through the middle of
the city and has loads oftributaries that goes off into
(28:36):
canals.
so it's a city of water and it'sa beautifully light place with
all of that water around theplace.
And over the last, you know, 30years there have been huge
artistic companies that havedeveloped here, like Druid
Theatre Company.
They're a kind of a nationaltheatre in all but name and they
(29:02):
have had massive successes allover the world really.
But everything they do startshere, so the very first people
to see it are the people ofGalway and then it goes out into
the world.
Martin McDonagh, his plays werefirst kind of.
He was kind of discovered byDrew, the theatre company, and
(29:24):
then the amazing Irishplaywrights like Tom Murphy and
many, many others.
I've given the city, I think, acultural heft that for a city of
its size you know it's lessthan 100,000 people live here
but it has that feeling thatthere's something happening.
There's always a festivalaround the corner.
(29:47):
We have a literary festival,the Courts International
Festival, which happens in Aprilevery year.
That's coming up very shortlyand the place will be awash with
people of a major literarystripe and that's a great event.
And then there are things likethe Arts Festival which happens
(30:08):
in Galway every July, which isthe biggest arts festival in
Ireland, and then there's a filmfestival that happens the week
before that, which is like amajor event as well.
So there's lots going on.
Culturally it's a rich place.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Plus, you have a wonderful university in Galway.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
We do.
There's about 25,000, 30,000students here and that gives a
great energy and a sense ofusefulness and hope, I think, to
the proceedings, and havingthat many young people is a
great addition to any city,particularly a city of this size
(30:51):
.
And then there's a lot ofvisitors come here during the
summer months and in fact it'skind of a year-round thing now
that there's tourists cominghere all of the time, not
overrun by tourism, but it's avery significant thing.
One of the great things aboutGalway is the conversations you
can have on the street.
You can meet anybody and youcan stand there and talk.
(31:16):
I know this probably happensanywhere in Ireland, but I think
particularly in Galway, you'llend up having discussions with
people that are astoundinglyinterested and involved.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
So you won't go short for a friend in Galway.
You will not.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
No, you will not.
That's one of the great thingsand there's a great cultural
life to the whole place.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Okay, well, let's talk about books.
What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
At the moment.
I am reading a couple of things.
Now there is a new book bysomebody who would be very
familiar to audiences in Americacalled Colin McCann.
He won the National Book Awardwith Let the Great World Spin
some years ago.
I happened to be in New York atthe time when that was going on
.
I ended up at the after showparty of that and that was on
(32:04):
for quite a while.
What a gift that was to bethere in that very moment.
This is Colm's new book.
It's called Twist.
It's about the very peculiarfact that not very many people
know is that the internet isvery dependent on undersea
cables and a lot of themconverge on the south coast of
(32:27):
Ireland, which is why oursecurity issues have become an
item of kind of world importancereally, because the Internet is
right outside our door.
Promoting this book, but it's amost interesting idea that very
(32:55):
many people are not at allaware of, because it's the idea
that the internet can be asprecariously positioned as that.
I mean it's almost like a 19thcentury kind of idea where you
lay under C cables.
You don't think that that'spart of the digital world, but
it actually is and you know itcan be sabotaged and it can be
interfered with and that wouldhave catastrophic results for it
(33:21):
really, would you know for howwe live our lives.
So that's a very interestingbook from Colm.
That's a very interesting bookfrom Colm.
This is Róisín Ó Danann's bookNesting.
This is a great novel from awriter that many people wouldn't
have heard of, but it's beenshortlisted for quite a number
of awards and it's a verycontemporary novel and it's a
(33:43):
novel about what's happening nowreally, you know, in Ireland.
It's a woman fleeing from anabusive relationship, but she's
also kind of trapped in.
There's a housing crisis inIreland at the moment.
I think there's a housingcrisis probably everywhere in
the world, but it's particularlyacute in Ireland at the moment
(34:04):
because we had a bit of a crisisin our construction industry in
2008 and it never reallyrecovered from that, so we
haven't been building houseslike we should have been and
it's been very difficult forpeople who can't afford to get
onto the housing ladder, andthat reflects that as well, and
it's a very kind of keen look atthat, and it's great to great
(34:27):
to to see novelists focusing onthe now, you know, on what's
happening right now, which youknow.
A lot of them maybe shy awayfrom, because it's a difficult
thing to get right.
Perhaps you know, you thinkmaybe you might just be going up
a cul-de-sac and it won't readthat freshly in a couple of
years' time, but I think thatshe's done a great job at that.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And kudos to the publisher too for taking it on.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Absolutely yeah, it's a great piece of work and
Roisin is, as I say, nominatedfor a number of awards, so it'll
be interesting to see if herbravery gets rewarded, as it
should be, I think.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Oh, that would be wonderful.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Well, vinnie, it's been great chatting with you.
I'm going to be in Ireland inJune, but I don't think I'm
going to get to Galway.
Hopefully at Christmas I'll popin and say hi and buy some
books from you about it.
And, um, yeah, the, the, theirish, uh, writing world is as
healthy, thanks to god, as it itever was.
I, I came from the cinema thereum earlier actually, I went off
(35:38):
to see a new documentary aboutthe great edna o'brien.
The film is called the blueroad, so I, I would, uh, I would
urge people to keep an eye outfor it.
It's an amazing piece of workabout an amazing Irish
personality and an amazing Irishwriter.
(35:58):
Edna died only last year, so Imean, she has an incredible long
and fruitful career.
An amazing lady, you know,following on also from people
like John McGahern and reallymassive figures of Irish writing
(36:19):
for the last part of the 20thcentury, and then people like
Roddy Doyle and Joseph O'Connor,and then the newer generation
of writers like Sally Rooney andGarrett Carr, who has a new
book just published, and ColinWalsh.
It's endless, thankfullyendless.
We would need to lead severallives for all of the books that
(36:44):
we would like to read.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yes, isn't that the truth, Finney?
What time is it over there?
It must be getting late.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It's coming up to six o'clock now, so it's time to
maybe batten down the hatchesand visit one of those
hustleries around the cornerthat are so sustaining to our
literary culture as well as toeverything else.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Enjoy yourself, vinnie, and thanks again for
being on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Okay, mandy, all the best, Bye-bye.
You've been listening to myconversation with Vinnie Brown
from Charlie Burns Bookshop inthe heart of Galway City,
ireland.
To help the show reach morepeople, please share episodes
with friends and family and onsocial media, and remember to
subscribe and leave a reviewwherever you listen to this
podcast.
(37:26):
To find out more about theBookshop Podcast, go to
thebookshoppodcastcom and makesure to subscribe and leave a
review wherever you listen tothe show.
You can also follow me at MandyJackson Beverly on X, instagram
and Facebook and on YouTube atthe Bookshop Podcast.
If you have a favorite indiebookshop that you'd like to
(37:49):
suggest we have on the podcast,I'd love to hear from you via
the contact form atthebookshoppodcastcom.
The Bookshop Podcast is writtenand produced by me, mandy
Jackson-Beverly, theme musicprovided by Brian Beverly,
executive assistant to Mandy,adrienne Otterhahn, and graphic
design by Frances Perala.
(38:09):
Thanks for listening and I'llsee you next time.
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