WE SELL BOOKS: ‘I have a lot of roadkill I get stuffed. I hate passing a decent specimen on the road’

Conor Kelleher in his Gadaí Dubh Bookshop in Ballymakeera, Co Cork. Picture: Don MacMonagle

Conor Kelleher runs Gadaí Dubh bookshop in Ballymakeera, in the Muskerry Gaeltacht in Co Cork. It sells new, used and antiquarian books.

Marjorie Brennan finds out more.

How long have you been in business?

I opened up in July 1916. The shop had been a drapers for about 100 years before that.

How did you get into the book business?

When I’d get stressed out and all that, I’d always say, ‘I wish I could opt out, open a bookshop and take it easy’. Myself and my wife were driving through the village one day, and we saw a ‘For rent’ sign and my wife said it would make a good spot for a bookshop.

We talked about it and called in later and explained to the owner that we would like to put in an old- fashioned bookshop, try to keep as much of the character of the place as possible. He went for it and it took me about four months to do the place up and build all the shelves in there for the books, with the help of my brother-in-law. People thought I was mad because every other bookshop was closing down and I was opening one. I had loads of books at home.

I’m always buying books, I can’t help myself.

What did you do before you became a bookseller?

I’m an ecologist — I was still working at that until recently enough but I had to give it up on health grounds. I have incurable MS so I knew the day was coming when my mobility would be hampered and I was thinking of doing something else. I carried out environmental and ecological impact assessments on roads, landfills and commercial developments. I specialised in bats.

Tell us more about the shop:

I put the shop together to suit myself as much as anyone else because it is my little man cave. I am very much into the natural world. I’ve always collected rocks, fossils, dead animals and things like that.

I put all of those into the shop so people can see them. I wanted to have it as a kind of social hub, not necessarily that people would feel they have to buy a book, but they could spend an hour or two and chill out. I’ve got board games and there’s people who come in and play cards as well, they can stay as long as they want.

I have regulars who come in daily or a few times a week and they spend a few hours chatting. We have poetry readings and ciorcal cainte as well for people to practise their Irish because we are in the Gaeltacht. I provide complimentary teas and coffees for people who are browsing.

The shop is dog-friendly as well because I’m mad about dogs; I have my own dog there and he likes meeting all the other dogs.

Are you selling any books?

I sell the odd one, alright. [Laughs] My wife thinks I am buying more than I am selling. I found it very difficult to begin with to part with any of the books. I was talking people out of buying them and telling them that wasn’t the exact edition they wanted and all of that. I have about 35,000 books. That is not in the shop. There is only about 10,000 visible in the shop.

What have you learned?

When I opened first, I had no idea of the local reading habits. I have discovered some things sell and some don’t. I specialise in Irish history because there is so much War of Independence and Civil War history down here.

There are bullet holes in the back of the building, from the Civil War. My great-grandfather was shot by the British and my great-grandmother buried his rifle; I have that in the shop, as well as grenades, bayonets, bits of Black and Tan uniforms, they are all there for people to look at.

I have a lot of roadkill that I get stuffed. I hate passing a decent specimen on the road and having it go to waste so I take it to a taxidermist in Killarney. People are starting to show up with their own skulls to have them identified, it’s great. I have deer antlers, dinosaur teeth, woolly mammoth fur and all that. I wish I had more space, that’s the only thing.

What are your biggest sellers?

Kids books, there’s never a day when we don’t sell kids books. There were a few surprises though.

I had a big sports section to begin with because I thought local people are well into the GAA and soccer and all of that. But nobody bought the sports books. The only time I sold any was when people were buying them as presents for somebody else.

The other surprise is the interest in poetry, it’s amazing. It’s like an underground movement out there. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t sell a poetry book, and it’s not the classics like Keats, Wordsworth or Shelley, it’s the Irish poets, the short volumes of poets that you’ve never heard of.

What are the rewards of being a bookseller?

It is always interesting, you meet so many people with different backgrounds. I’ve kind of become the agony aunt of the village. People love to tell me stuff.

I thought I would get loads of reading done but there are so many people coming and going, I’d say I’ve read one book in the two-and-a-half years. There is always something to do. In between people coming in, I have to tidy up, clean up after the odd dog piddle and things like that. I don’t mind that because I have a ceramic floor.

Some people leave their dogs in with me for an hour while they go off shopping. The dogs get loads of treats and rubber bones. They get very excited when they come into the shop.

Where does the name Gadaí Dubh come from?

St Gobnait is the local patron saint, and up in her church [in Ballyvourney] there is a carving on the wall, with the head of a man, known as the Gadaí Dubh.

It’s actually a carving of Crom Dubh, the pagan God that was incorporated into the church into the 6th century to get Crom’s followers to follow Christianity instead. They came up with the story that he was a thief who robbed St Gobnait’s horse and put a spell on it, which meant it went around in circles.