Kennys In the Media
A leather bound book doesn't just 'happen' to have five raised bands on the spine. If it has an unusually long spine it could be permitted to have six, but five is correct... such is tradition.Gerry Kenny's Book Bindery in Salthill, Galway, is a time-warp of tradition. Books began when the docex or manuscript sheets started to replace the scroll and had to be kept together. The art of doing this with highly decorated leather was first practised by the Coptic Church in Egypt, and became common with the 15th century development of printing.
by Rosita Boland
Kenny's book shop embraced online selling earlier than most. Next week it closes its bricks-and-mortar store to concentrate on the internet. Rosita Boland pays a final visit to the Galway institution.It is with great sadness that we learned that one of Ireland's great cultural institutions, Kennys Bookshop, is to close its doors in early 2006 as part of a relocation which will see its book business move wholly online. The High street and Middle Street premises, which are owned by the company, are to be leased out whilst the company's operations will relocate to its export centre in Liosban, Galway. Kennys Art Gallery will also move to new premises at Galway's dock gate.
One of Galway's most famous women, Maureen Kenny of Kenny's bookshop on High Street, was honoured in Dublin this week when she was presented with an honorary degree from the National Council for Education awards.She was one of six recipients of the NCEA degrees at a ceremony at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham on Tuesday, and she was in excellent company - among the other recipients were former president, Dr. Patrick Hillery, and deputy leader of the SDLP, Seamus Mallon.
Published May 4, 2000
This is an Internet story of a World Wide Web created long before Bill Gates ever drew an anti-trusting breath.The story starts with a tip from Sister Gabriella Lohan, whose gift to San Antonio is the trouble she stirs up as a Metro Alliance leader.I've always obeyed the nuns - well almost - and she was right. Kenny's Bookstore has a Web site that makes you want to crawl inside and spend weeks on end reading. I pushed the e-mail button and sent this message:
by Rick Casey, San Antonio-Express NewsPublished April 5th 2000A Spanish Sculptor's dream created a gallery.More recently owned by Kenny's and known as An Dámhlann.The celebrated Spiddal art-space is closing.The siting is wonderful, light, comfortably airy. The view from the windows takes in the crumpled blue of Galway Bay and the brooding dark greys of the Burren and the mountains of Clare. You step out of the front door into a bracing salted breeze.At the height of summer the promenade is manic and gaudy with tourists. In grey winter, the Atlantic plays cattishly with the waters of the bay, driving them in white gusts over the rocks.
by Fred Johnston Published February 24th, 2000"Do not fail to write down your first impressions as soon as possible" - impressions of tea ceremonies and temple gardens, love hotels and lingering sunsets. A Galway couple, Jimmy Shaughnessy and his wife, Annemarie Gleeson, may be a mite too busy to record their first few weeks in Japan, but one hopes they will have found time to take some advise from "Paddy", otherwise known as Lafcadio Hearn, the great Irish - Japanese writer.For Jimmy has been awarded a fellowship on an executive training programme in Hearn's adopted country.
by Lorna Siggins Published January 31st, 2000
Des Kenny of Kenny's Bookshop in Galway regularly sends packages of books to 1,400 people all over of world - sometimes picking all the contents himself. Katie Donovan talked to him about his global book club.Tanya Cassidy is one of 1,400 people in 45 countries - from Korea and Japan to all over the US - who receive regular packages of books from Kenny's bookshop in Galway. "They all love the personal care involved," says Des Kenny, who runs what is now known as the Book Club.
by Katie O'Donovan
Published Thursday, November 12th, 1998.