I was up at a hotel just outside of Galway last Friday for a union meeting (join a union!) and because it was on a Friday and I was staying overnight anyway, I decided to book a second night at a B&B close to town and spend Saturday visiting some of my favorite places from when I used to live there. Luck was on my side and the Saturday was absolutely beautiful and sunny — and if you know Galway, you know just how lucky that is.
But if you’re taking a trip up, whether for Cúirt International Festival of Literature in April (and if you are, I’m jealous!) or just for a visit, you can have a great day whether it’s sunny and warm or windy and lashing rain, because you can spend your day exploring the wonderful bookshops (and pubs) of Galway. Here’s my recommended itinerary for a lovely and literary day in Galway city:
We’ll start the morning with a choose-your-own-adventure moment. If you’re staying east of the city, where many of the larger hotels are, then start your day at Kennys Bookshop. You can also walk out to Kennys from the city (about a 30 minute walk from Eyre Square, but if you have to hop in the car anyway, this is a good time for a visit as the walk isn’t particularly scenic — and if it’s sunny, you’ll want to save your steps for Salthill).
Kennys is my absolute favourite bookshop in Ireland, not only for the shop itself but also for its wonderful online store (which you can order from worldwide!). Featuring a mix of new and secondhand books, you can find pretty much anything you’re looking for here, including special editions, rare used books, and leabhair Ghaeilge.
One of my favourite things about Kennys is their special editions — whenever an Irish author I love announces a new novel, I always keep an eye out to see if Kennys will have a signed first edition to order, and they usually do. Often these editions have different covers, exclusive forwards, or some other special element. I have exclusive Kennys editions of Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo (which I pre-ordered literally within two minutes of them sending out the email), Long Island by Colm Tóibín, several Donal Ryan novels, and more. Actually the only reason I didn’t buy anything at Kennys on this trip is because I have two upcoming novels pre-ordered with them, Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt and Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin.
If you choose Kennys for your first stop, you’l probably want some breakfast afterward to fuel up for your next bookstore browse. I recommend driving to the other side of town and going for brunch at Ard Bia. It’s my fave place to eat in Galway and possibly all of Ireland, and the only place where I never regret going sweet instead of savory for brunch because their French toast is just so good. Also a great date-night dinner restaurant (or any occasion, really, and to keep this book-related they also have a wonderful cookbook).
On the other hand, if you’re saving your trip out for Kennys for later in the day, you’ll want to go for breakfast before you hit up bookshop number one, because you will need to queue at my other recommendation. I passed by Magpie Bakery around 11 on Saturday morning and there was a queue at least 15 people long. Curious but not peckish at the time, I decided to come back Sunday morning and check it out. Despite arriving about 15 minutes before it opened, there was already a queue!
I have to say, it was completely worth the wait. I had a vegan sausage roll, a morning bun, and bought a loaf of lemon poppyseed sourdough to take home. All were delicious, and there were so many other fabulous looking pastries in the glass display case. So my recommendation is to arrive a bit before opening and start your day with coffee and a pastry (or two).
And, conveniently, Magpie Bakery is right next door to my other favourite bookshop in Galway/Ireland. Charlie Byrne’s is an institution in Galway. It’s got that classic bookshop feel — comfortably cluttered and packed from floor to ceiling with books (over a hundred thousand!) across a number of rooms. They’re also home to a host of events, with several book clubs every month, children’s story hours, and an array of book launches and readings.
Charlie Byrne’s also has a special place in my heart because the MA in Literature & Publishing at NUI Galway publishes a journal called Ropes every year and Charlie Byrne’s are always the first to agree to stock copies (although I do have to say that all of the bookshops in Galway are extremely support of of local work… and anyone is looking for my year’s edition of Ropes, I did see that Kennys happens to have a single 2014 copy on its shelves).
Unlike Kennys, I don’t tend to buy from Charlie Byrne’s online, so it would’ve been rude not to pick up a whole stack of books when I was there on Saturday, right? I bought three secondhand novels — Memorial by Bryan Washington, The Idiot by Elif Bautman, and Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood — Eimear McBride’s new novel The City Changes its Face, and a book of poetry by Alvy Carragher, who was doing her MA in Writing when I was doing mine in Publishing and whose poetry blew us away when she submitted it to Ropes so I’m delighted she went on to publish several collections.
Okay, now that you’ve bought a few books, it’s time to take a wander through town. If you need even more bookshops, you can call in to Eason and Dubray on Shop Street — even if they’re chains, they’re still local Irish chains and their Galway locations are worth a stop. At the top of Shop Street, you can also visit the statues of Irish writer Oscar Wilde and Estonian writer Eduard Vilde.
Otherwise, assuming you’re visiting on a weekend, you can wander down the street by St. Nicholas Church and check out the Galway Market, if it’s a sunny day you can stop for a pint and some people watching at Tigh Neachtain‘s, or you can call in to one of the jewellery shops and buy a Claddagh ring in the place of its origin.
Now it’s time to head west. If you’re lucky enough to be blessed with a sunny day (or anything short of a downpour, really), I recommend a walk out to Salthill. Cross the bridge at the Spanish Arch and stick to the road along the river (for first-time visitors, this is also where you’ll get a great picture of the Long Walk and its colorful houses) and then the path along the coast. From here to the end of Salthill Prom is about three kilometres.
When you get back to town, stay on the Claddagh side of the harbour. If you’re thirsty for a(nother) pint at this point, the Salt House has long been a favourite of mine (I’m sure in part because when I lived in Galway I lived all of three-minutes’ walk away), with a nice selection of craft beer and always a good atmosphere that’s lively but not so loud that you can’t have a chat. If something non-alcoholic is more to your taste, the Secret Garden a lovely little spot for tea and, on the bookish side of things, apparently hosts a weekly silent book club. Described as “happy hour for introverts,” this group meets on Saturdays at 5:30 to read, together but quietly. I love this idea and I want one in Killarney!
We’ve got one more bookshop on our little tour, and that’s Bell Book and Candle just up the street from the Secret Garden and next to the Crane Bar (which is the best spot for nightly trad music in Galway, by the way). It’s much smaller than the other bookshops in town, but it still has a great array of not only books but also records, cds, comics, and all sorts of other items, so it’s definitely worth a look.
We’ve come to the end of our bookish tour of Galway, but you’ve still got a whole evening ahead of you for good pints, food, and music — if you’re not just racing back to your hotel to read your new books!
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