Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

Opening Hours

Monday-Thursday: 9-6

Friday: 9-8

Saturday: 9-6

Sunday: 12-6

Welcome!

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, located in the heart of Galway City, stocks over 50,000 used, new and remaindered titles on subjects ranging from popular fiction to Irish interest to art and archaeology.

We also stock recently published titles by local authors, by Irish novelists and poets, and on local and national history.

Back on Our Shelves

Judging Dev by Diarmaid Ferriter (€30)

Ferriter is a Senior Lecturer in Irish history at St. Patrick's College in Dublin, and this book was accompanied by an RTE Radio 1 series.

Paisley Biography

Ed Moloney's Paisley. From Demagogue to Democrat? (€19.99)

Moloney's first biography of Paisley appeared in 1986. This is a fully revised and updated version, published in 2008.

What we are reading now -

Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels

Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's travels is, simply, very very funny, even subversive and shocking. At the same time he offers a clear, even brutally honest, insight into human weakness: our moral vices just as much as our physical grossness. What is perhaps most surprising, however, is the warmth felt for the Houyhnhnms, the race of virtuous and ultra-rational horses Gulliver encounters in the final voyage. He comes to see himself (and all other humans, his family included) as nothing but filthy, vicious Yahoos; he would much rather live out his days on a deserted island contemplating the perfection of the Houyhnhnms. But, unfortunately, he is saved, and must return home.

New Stock......

Gerard Donovan's Julius Winsome. A Novel (€10)

The latest novel from Irish author Gerard Donovan. His previous works are Schopenhauer's Telescope and Doctor Salt.

Alt Text

Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (€350)

This three-volume catalogue reproduces all 471 paintings Robert H. Ellsworth donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as of 1987, along with hundreds of images of calligraphic scrolls and fans. The index volume contains commentaries and biographies of 300 artists and calligraphers, along with transliterations into Chinese script of every inscription and seal.

This week at Charlie Byrne’s
A sampling of the latest finds on our shelves. Click for Full List...

New Stock

Northline

Northline by Willy Vlautin (€16.50).

Includes a free limited edition original CD soundtrack, performed by Willy Vlautin and Paul Brainard. Vlautin's debut novel, The Motel Life, was published in 2005.

Something to Tell You

Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureshi (€21.30).

The latest novel from the author of My Beautiful Laundrette, Venus, The Black Album, and The Buddha of Suburbia

Reprint of Irish Social History Classic

Maire MacNeill The Festival of Lughnasa (€45)

The Festival of Lughnasa

Garland Sunday and Domhnach Chrom Dubh are two of the many names of a festival celebrated by Irish country people at the end of July or the beginning of August. It marked the end of summer and the beginning of harvest season, and on that day the first meal of the year’s new food crop was eaten.

First published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Republished in 2008 by University College Dublin.

Photography

Magnum Ireland (€20)

Photographs taken by Magnum photographers in Ireland from the 1950's to the 2000's. It includes the work of Henri-Cartier Bresson, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Martine Franck, and many others.

New from the Royal Irish Academy

1916 in 1966. Commemorating the Easter Rising (€35)

Edited by Mary E. Daly and Margaret O’Callaghan. This book explores golden jubilee commemoration of the 1916 Rising in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In addition, the book also explores the 1966 anniversary from the perspectives of drama, youth culture and history

Ruth Delany The Shannon Navigation (€29.95)

The Shannon Navigation PB

This magnificent documentary history is illustrated by over two hundred and fifty photographs, engravings, posters, maps and drawings, and contains invaluable appendices detailing the Acts and parliamentary papers, the works, the tonnage carried, and information about steamers and other boats.

Recent Poetry Collection:

Salmon. A Jouney in Poetry.

Edited by Jessie Lendennie (Salmon, €25)

Memoir

Pat Doran, A Clune's Lane Fisherman. My Life as a Shannon Estuary Fisherman & Boatbuilder (€20)

Also available:

The Price of our Souls by Michael McCaughan

Michael McCaughan's The Price of Our Souls. Gas, Shell and Ireland (Afri, €10); Seamus Martin's Good Times and Bad (Mercier, €19.99)

Modern Irish Poetry - An Anthology Alt Text

Modern Irish Poetry. An Anthology,edited by Patrick Crotty (Black Staff, €19.85); Norma Clarke, Queen of the Wits. A Life of Laetitia Pilkington (Faber & Faber, €26.50).

Remembering War Dead bookcover

Remembering the War Dead by Fergus A D'Arcy (€22.00).

Published by the Office of Public Works. A history of the war graves in Ireland of not just Irish but also British and International dead during both the World Wars.

News Updates

Cúirt International Festival of Literature 2008

Although we have closed our Festival Bookshop at the Town Hall Theatre for another year, many of the titles on sale during the festival can now be purchased from Charlie Byrne's:

Sebastian Barry, Rachel Cusk, Jennifer Johnston, Moya Cannon, Samantha Power, Asne Seierstad, Breyten Breytenbach, David Harsent, William Henry, Seamus Martin, Donald Hall, Sean Og de Paor, and many more ...

New Stock...

A recent shipment of art books has just reached our shelves. Numerous titles from Taschen and Phaidon are now available.

We have also received a large number of sports titles from Crowood publishers. Included are books on marshall arts, aviation, water sports, and cycling. The books can be viewed in our window display at the front enterance to the shop.

Secondhand

We have just received a large shipment of secondhand and antiquarian books.

They include classic philosophical texts (Ryle, Popper, Strawson...), hard back literary classics (Austen, Thackery ...), theology and church history, literary fiction, English history, natural history, travel, Agatha Christie paperbacks, and much more

Antiquarian

110 volumes of the Irish Ecclesiastical Record (1864/5-1943)

P.W. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 3 volumes (Phoenix)

Encyclopaedia Britannica, nineth edition, 24 volumes

Scott's novels (1933 edition), 35 volumes

Among the many 'sets' available there are:

Charles Dickens Complete Set (35 volume set for €250 and 16 volume set for €120)

Waverly novels, 19 volumes

Denis Wheatley, 34 volumes

Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, 14 volumes

Writings of Bret Harte, 12 volumes

54 Great Books of the Western World

Limited Edition Poetry Book

Derek Mahon's Somewhere The Wave (€130)

Drawings and watercolours by Bernadette Kiely

Five hundred copies are published by The Gallery Press. They are printed in colour on Rives Artist by Rosbeek and casebound in linen. Each is signed by the author and numbered.

SALE!!!

We have some fantastic offers in our Spring Sale.

Selected titles in popular fiction at €3 each, or 4 for €10

Selected titles in Irish literary fiction and general literary fiction for either €1 or €2

New York Review of Charlie's

Some of our customers will remember Adrienne Anifant who worked in the bookshop a few years ago. Adrienne is now living in New York. She has written an article about the bookshop for a new on line magazine. You can read the article at http://www.janera.com

Seachtain na Gaeilge

As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge, Aoife Ni Ghuairim read from her new work, an tAdh Dearg (€7.99), on Tuesday March 4th at 11am in Charlie Byrne's.

Poetry Reading

Poet and Irish Times journalist Gerard Smyth (pictured below) gave a reading for the Western Writers' Centre on Wednesday, February 27th, at Sheridan's Wine Bar. The event was sponsored by Charlie Byrne's Bookshop. He is the author of several collections, including Daytime Sleeper (Dedalus), and A New Tenancy (Dedalus). His most recent book, The Mirror Tent (Dedalus, €11), is available in Charlie Byrne's.

Book Launches

We would like to thank all those who joined us on Friday February 1 for the launch of Allyn Fives's new book, Political and Philosophical Debates in Welfare (Palgrave, €27). Michael D. Higgins launched the book on what was a lively, enjoyable evening.

To the Limits of Endurance

Thanks to all who joined us on Saturday, 12 January for the launch of two books: To The Limits of Endurance: One Irishman's War by Jack Harte and Sandra Mara (Liberties Press), and 40 Shades of Green: A Wry Look at What It Means To Be Irish by Des Geraghty.

Thanks also to all who joined us on Friday 6 December for the launch of The Irish Conservative Party 1862-1868: Land, Politics and Religion by Andrew Shields (pictured below). Professor Gearoid O Tuathaigh of NUI, Galway launched the book.

Quiz ...

Name the author and the book.

A novelist born in India who has also written travel guides. The novel is set in North Africa, and is the first part of a quartet. It is a love story that is also a homage to its setting, an ancient city. And a little bit of Gnosticism is thrown in for good measure.

Please send us your answers to info@charliebyrne.com. The first person to send us a correct answer will be sent a €20 Charlie Byrne book voucher.

So as to encourage as many participants as possible, anyone who has been successful in our quiz in the past is asked to wait two months before taking part again.

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