Where did it all begin? As a romance. In the 1930s, Maureen Canning from Mohill won a scholarship to UCG (now NUIG). On her first day, she met Des Kenny, and as he often said afterwards “That was that!”. They graduated and got married. They had no jobs but they wanted to stay in Ireland. It was during the war, they had no money and there were few prospects. Both came from book-loving families and so they decided to open a bookshop. It seemed like an act of madness, but they were young, very much in love, tenacious and not afraid of hard work. They leased the ground floor of a building in High Street, Galway. The bank loaned them £100 with which they bought some stock. Friends and relations gave them books. The shop was tiny, but they opened with hopes and dreams and very little fanfare on November 29th, 1940.

Business was slow so they devised different ways of supplementing their income, for a few years they sold tobacco, they started a lending library, sold second-hand schoolbooks, placed stalls in various factories and hotels etc. They could not survive on the bookshop alone so Des went out to work, but most of his spare time was spent helping out there. Some occasional visitors in those days were Kate O’Brien, Frank O’Connor, Eric Cross, Seán Ó Faoláin, Ethel Mannin, Muiris Ó Súilleabháin and Ernie O’Malley.

To add a little colour, Maureen introduced crafts, handmade locally in the late 1940’s. In 1951 she hosted her first exhibition and this in turn led to visual artists showing their work. A major development in the 1950s was the purchase of a second-hand duplicating machine which was installed in a bedroom at their home, and the family began to crank out catalogues. These catalogues gave the shop a new status in Ireland, and introduced them to customers abroad. Their horizons were expanding. They were selling mostly second-hand books and were gaining in experience and expertise. Their speciality was (and still is) books of Irish interest. Des was on the road at every opportunity buying libraries and the quality of the stock improved.

The Irish language was very important to them and there was always a good stock of Irish language books. One night there was a fire in an overhead apartment and the fire brigade poured in thousands of gallons of water to quench it. This percolated down through floors to the bookshop. The ESB switched off the electricity, so there was no light in at the back of the shop. A customer came in and enquired if there were any Irish language books in stock. “Yes, but unfortunately, you cannot see them, we have no electricity”, ”Couldn’t you get a candle?” he asked, so Maureen lit two candles and they squelched their way through puddles to the Irish books. She left him there with the candles, water dripping everywhere about him. He emerged about two hours later with a pile of books which he paid for. A few days later an apology arrived from him by way of a letter - he never realised there had been a fire there until he read it in the paper when he went home.

Regular visitors at this time were Brendan Behan, Mary Lavin, Walter Macken and Austin Clarke. Graham Greene visited and subsequently carried on a correspondence. William Randolph Hearst syndicated a major article on the bookshop in all of his newspapers.

In 1965, Des came back into the business on a full-time basis and his dynamism and vision, combined with Maureen’s pragmatism and by now legendary knowledge of books had a transforming effect. They opened the first commercial art gallery in the west of Ireland with an exhibition of paintings by Seán Keating. From then on, Kennys hosted exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, stained glass, ceramics, book launches, readings, signings etc. They began to photograph visiting writers and artists. They opened a shop dedicated to antiquarian maps and prints. Five of their children joined the business and in 1974 they built a book bindery in their back garden for their son Gerry.

Sorley McLean did a reading, Séamus Heaney, Paul Durkan, Edna O’Brien, Richard Ellmann and William Trevor visited, Brendan Kennelly and Frederick Forsyth opened exhibitions.

In the early 1980s they managed to buy the High Street building and also the building behind it which backed on to Middle Street. They linked the two buildings together and transferred the maps, the art gallery and their store of books to the city centre location. They began to publish a series of books, mostly of local interest. The US Library of Congress appointed them as their Irish suppliers.

When Roald Dahl spent two days signing his books, it was one way traffic through the shop and the queues went up to the top of the street. The launch of Breandán Ó hEithir’s novel, “Lig Sin i gCathú” was broadcast live on Radio 1 for 90 minutes. Brian Friel opened an exhibition; Jurgen Lodemann made a documentary for German television on the bookshop; Samuel Beckett signed photographic mounts so that his ‘portrait’ could be included with the exhibition of author’s photographs.

President Hillery opened an exhibition of portraits of Irish writers entitled “Faces in a Bookshop” with some 50 writers in attendance. Benedict Kiely, Noel Browne and Maeve Binchy also opened exhibitions. Derek Walcott, Miroslav Holub, Sir Sidney Nolan and Allen Ginsberg visited.

In 1994, Kennys became the first company in Ireland to have a website and the second bookshop in the world to go online. This exciting development slowly changed the dynamics of bookselling and they were now travelling extensively in the US and Japan networking, selling, building up collections for libraries. Des Jr. started a book club for individual customers.

Andrei Voznesensky, Margaret Attwood, Jung Chang and Thomas Keneally visited. In 1996, they closed temporarily while they completely rebuilt the interior of the High St /Middle St premises. The new complex was launched by John McGahern who opened his speech with the line “Mrs Kenny misses nothing”. “Face to Face” was published, a collection of some 200 authors’ photographs taken in the bookshop.

Kennys bought the entire contents of the long established Hammersmith Books in London. An hour long documentary entitled "Books in the Blood" was screened on national TV.

Maureen Kenny was conferred with an honorary degree by NUI, Galway. Part of her citation read “She and all she stands for remained a constant when virtually everything around her had disappeared, been redeveloped or surrendered to more perishable, transient tastes. Her metier represents one that is entwined with Galway’s history”. In 2006, she retired after 66 years behind the counter.

At a surprise party to honour David Marcus, several well known writers whom he had published for the first time, read from their works. TG4 broadcast a live two-hour programme called Árdán from the bookshop. Seamus Heaney opened a John Behan exhibition during which he referred to Maureen Kenny as The Madonna of the Manuscripts. Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee visited.

Several years ago, Kennys realised they were selling more books online than they were on the High Street, so they decided to move about a mile away to a large warehouse building in the Liosbán Retail Park on the Tuam Road. While the new Kennys Bookshop does not have the character of the inner city building, being more akin to an American style bookbarn, the Kennys are still retailing books and have done a great deal to retain the atmosphere of the old shop. They still host book launches and readings.

Kennys are dedicated to the culture of the book. For them, books are far more than a commodity, they help to make the vital connection between writer and reader many times every day. Because they have met (and read) so many of these authors, they are often able to personalise sales with anecdotes which give an added dimension to the purchase. They are constantly promoting and marketing writers, particularly in the early stages of their careers. Three members of staff are third generation family, and they, like their grandparents, strive to make Kenny’s Bookshop a world of its own, and a key to worlds unknown.

[A version of this post was also published by the Irish Times on 29th May, 2015, under the following headline with an alternative introductory paragraph:

Kennys Bookshop in Galway: a bestseller for 75 years

Tom Kenny, son of founders Des and Maureen, recounts the remarkable history of an Irish literary institution that began as a romance and became a blockbuster – ‘a world of its own, and a key to worlds unknown’... Read online now  >>> ]