Books Are My Business: Conor Kenny, Kenny's Bookshop, Galway

Conor Kenny is managing director of Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway, and handles rare books, special collections and archives. The shop was founded by his parents Des and Maureen Kenny in 1940. It is based at Liosbán industrial estate just outside the city, where it also has an art gallery.

Conor Kenny of Kennys Bookshop

Can you tell me about being a second-generation bookseller?

I’m 66 and I’m 50 years in the books business — I began working in the business straight away when I came out of school. It has been wonderful but there have been plenty of tough times. This business is supporting a number of families — and five of our own family, three brothers, one sister and myself. We have seen all of the recessions and all of the rest of it but we adapted and that is the reason we ended up doing the rare book collections and archives. During Covid, our website became an overnight success online after 20 years. We have kept a lot of that business.