Support your local bookshop: 10 stores that are still offering a service during lockdown
A file picture of Waterstones Cork manager Tim Clarke, right, with author Kevin Barry.
The Cork branch of Waterstones is offering a click-and-collect service to customers via phone, email, social media, and its website.
“The message is that we’re here and we’re happy to provide books to our customers in a safe manner,” says manager Tim Clarke.
“For the last month, people are buying for Christmas. Local titles are always well-supported in Cork. One we like a lot is Denis Coughlan’s book with Tadhg Coakley, which is selling really well, as is the Roy Keane Origins book (Eoin O’Callaghan). Cork Words, a new anthology published by the city library is also doing well.”
- Phone: 021-4276522
- Email: cork@waterstones.com
- Website: waterstones.com
O’Mahony’s is taking orders on its website, by email and phone, and is operating a click-and-collect service.
It also sells gifts, stationery and arts and crafts online. “We keep over 100,000 titles in stock, which is quite a large selection,” says managing director Frank O’Mahony. Top sellers include the Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Home Stretch by Graham Norton and After the Silence, by Louise O’Neill.
“We expect Barack Obama’s forthcoming autobiography A Promised Land to be a major Christmas bestseller and we have a very special post-free online price,” says O’Mahony.
- Phone: 061-418 155
- Email: reception@omahonys.ie
- Website: www.omahonys.ie
The Bantry Bookshop is operating a collection service on Thursday and Friday from 10am to 1pm. “That’s when most people are in town to collect pensions or do their messages,” says Kate Smyth, who owns the shop with her sister Marnie. They are also taking orders by phone and on Facebook.
It’s no surprise that one of the shop’s top-selling titles is Home Stretch by Graham Norton, who has a house nearby and is one of the shop’s biggest supporters.
“The Chill Skill by Niall Breslin and Pigín's Unexpected Adventure by Kathleen Watkins are also doing well. The Dead Zoo (Peter Donnelly) is huge,” says Smyth.
- Phone: 027-55946
- Email: bantrybookshop@gmail.com
- Website: www.bantrybookshop.ie
It has been a tough year for business but Brenda Woulfe is determined to stay trading.
“I’m doing click-and-collect, call at the door and collect, I’m also delivering within the 5km, I’ll do anything, I’m flexible,” she says. “I’ll go down with the last book.”
Popular titles include Thrills and Spills by local horse-racing photographer Pat Healy. Woulfe also recommends Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. “It’s a delightful read, it would warm the cockles of your heart, it’s the perfect book to curl up with.”
- Phone: 068-21021
- Email: woulfesbookshop@gmail.com
- Website: woulfesbookshop.ie
As well as selling books, stationery and gifts online, all branches of this popular chain are operating click and collect, by phone or through the website.
“The phones were very busy this morning, which is brilliant,” says managing director Maeve Ryan. The stores are also running a Book Box subscription service.
Books with a local flavour are always popular, says Ryan, and selling well at the moment are Waterford Harbour: Tides and Tales by Andrew O’Doherty, I’m Fine by Enda O’Doherty and Wexford in Lockdown by Lee Robinson.
- Phone: 051-873 823
- Website: thebookcentre.ie
The Bookworm has an extensive website for delivery and is also taking orders online, by phone, email and on social media for collection in the shop.
“Town is obviously quieter, people are staying home but we have plenty of people contacting us,” says owner John Butler. Best-selling titles include Tipperary hurling legend Len Gaynor’s autobiography, Dr Marie Cassidy’s memoir Beyond the Tape; Champagne Football, and Mary McAleese’s memoir, Here’s the Story.
“It has also been a great year for fiction and kid’s books,” says Butler. “The quality and range of books for all ages in children’s books is fantastic and they are doing really well.”
- Phone: 0504-22257
- Website: bookworm.ie
“We just want our customers to know that we are here for them,” says Ronan McCarthy, owner of Midleton Books and Fermoy Books, along with his wife Jess. He says the importance of books and reading for mental health and wellbeing cannot be underestimated right now.
Books can be picked up at the shops in Midleton and Fermoy, and orders are also being taken on the phone, and through Facebook. McCarthy says upcoming titles of interest include, for children, a new Wimpy Kid book, The Deep End, and a new David Walliams, Codename Bananas.
“There is also a new book from Rhonda Byrne who wrote The Secret, called The Greatest Secret,” he says. He also recommends The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
- Phone: 021-4633063
The bookshop, based in the eco-village of Cloughjordan, is taking orders by phone, email and through its website.
It is operating a click-and-collect service and will also send out orders by post. The shop also sells whole foods and eco cleaning products which means its store can stay open. “We have blocked off the books for browsing and people cannot understand it, they’re saying ‘but books are essential’,” says co-owner Mollie Barrow.
While the shop stocks many titles on climate change and activism, she says all people want right now is fiction. “In the last lockdown, the most popular books were thrillers, which we hadn’t even stocked before. People just want that bit of escapism.”
- Phone: 0505-42123
- Website: sheelaghnagig.com
This children’s bookshop recently marked one year in business. “I didn’t think when we were celebrating our first anniversary we would be closing the doors again,” says owner Trish Hennessy.
The shop is taking orders online, by email and phone, and is operating a click-and-collect service. It also has a selection of toys and gifts. “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (by Charlie Mackesy) is our top seller this year and it is still flying out the door; it is fabulous and absolutely perfect for now,” says Hennessy.
“The Great Irish Farm Book by Darragh McCullough and What We Build by Oliver Jeffers are also selling very well.”
- Phone: 01-2873002
- Email: info@halfwayupthestairs.ie
- Website: halfwayupthestairs.ie
The doors are shut but Aideen McConville is still in The Dingle Bookshop every day for people wanting to collect books.
“We are very busy this morning,” says McConville. “A lot of people are ringing us asking us to put stuff by for them for Christmas.” The shop will also post out orders.
Titles doing well include 32 Words for Field by Manchán Magan, A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Champagne Football by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan and Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty.
- Phone: 066-9152433
- Website: dinglebookshop.com
- Email: books@dinglebookshop.com
