Irish bookshop closed in UCC in wake of Brexit
Dublin’s Catholic bookshop, Cahill and Sons, has closed in the wake of a UK-wide boycott following Brexit.
It is the latest casualty in a chain that had been thriving in Ireland’s most populous city since the early 1990s, with hundreds of thousands of books sold each year.
In the past decade, Cahills, one of Dublin’s oldest and oldest surviving bookshops, closed its doors after losing out to rivals in the market.
Its demise follows a year-long boycott by Irish booksellers of British publishers and a number of other retailers.
Irish booksells have long complained that British publishers charge a premium for books in Ireland.
A senior official with the Irish Booksellers Association, which represents booksellings in Ireland, said the boycott had “shaken the faith” of booksellors in the country.
The boycott, which began in January, was led by Irish author and campaigner Anne-Marie Kelly, who was part of a group of authors who wrote to the British government in March.
She said it had made it impossible for the Irish book market to function properly, and she said the boycotts had had an impact on the book trade in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.
“The Irish book industry is very small.
It is the only sector that has not really made an impact in the last 10 years,” Ms Kelly said.
Many booksell and publishers were still planning to open shop in Ireland in the future, she said.
“We are in a position to start selling books in the next couple of years.
I think the boycott has affected that as well,” she said, adding that she hoped that the boycott would be reversed in the near future.
The boycotts followed a series of incidents in the UK following Brexit, including the closure of a second Irish book shop, Cahil and Sons in Newport, west Wales.
The bookshop’s manager, John Daley, said in a statement that Cahill had taken a number at a cost of up to €500,000 and would continue to do so.
“At this point, we do not believe we are in breach of the law, as we have always been compliant with the rules of our profession and our bookshop,” Mr Daley said.
The British government has previously said it has taken legal action against the bookshop in response to the boycott.
“The British Government takes these matters very seriously and has taken action to defend the rights of book publishers and bookselllers in the Irish market,” a spokesperson for the department for business, innovation and skills said.
Topics:book-literature,arts-and-entertainment,books-literatures,books,cahill-1st-century,uk