Pub book has Tom in high spirits

Lifestyle When Tom Kenny of the legendary Kennys’ Bookshop and Art Gallery had to step back from work due to Covid-19 restrictions, the avid local historian who’d planned to write a book on the old pubs of Galway City turned his attention to that project. Although he can’t do any research onsite at present because bars are closed, Tom is making good progress and is now inviting people to share their historic pub photos with him, as he tells BERNIE NÍ FHLATHARTA.

Timing is everything. Tom Kenny had been thinking of writing a book about Galway City pubs for a while, then just when he started his research in earnest, Covid happened. The pubs being closed hasn’t really brought his research to a halt but it has hindered him.

Tom, an art and bookdealer, who is also an enthusiastic local historian, loves the buzz of being in one of his favourite pubs and would have much preferred to have been meeting publicans face to face than doing research from his desk.

Like many, it took him a while to get into the stride of working from home, which meant progress on the book had been on hold. Until now.

The irony of the bad timing isn’t lost on Tom but he’s decided not to be stumped by the confinement of lockdown and has renewed his determination to find as many old photographs of Galway pubs as possible. These images will be the star of the book, he says.

When Covid first shut down the country in March 2020, Tom and his brothers, Des and Conor, with whom he ran the renowned Kennys’ Bookshop and Art Gallery, had to cocoon due to their age. That meant they couldn’t go to work in the family business in the Liosbán Retail Park. Luckily, members of the third generation who are now working in the company were able to hold the fort and are apparently doing a very good job of it.

“Sure, none of us could have known there was going to be a pandemic,” Tom says. He hadn’t thought there was any urgency to researching his book and had reckoned he’d have all the time in the world to go on an information-seeking ‘pub crawl’.

Indeed, he’d been looking forward to it as he loves talking to people about local history, social or otherwise.

The idea for the pub book came about after Tom gave a slide show presentation for Galway Civic Trust during Heritage Week 2017 on old pubs in and around the city, from Barna to Castlegar.

He has been doing slide shows on various subjects for the past 40 years, thanks to his interest in collecting photographs of everything and anything relating to his beloved native city. But this particular topic struck a chord with people, possibly due to our general grá for pubs, and he was asked to do more.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.