Connolly Books

Here’s a bookshop with passion, that passion being for radical literature and Irishness. A friend of mine once told me that his civil-​servant father used to meet with other socialists and communists in secret in a little room in this shop in the 1970s. Named for leading Irish socialist and republican James Connolly, Connolly Books has a great range of books on social and political topics, as well as on Irish cultural subjects. Like it? I love it.

What is a city without a radical bookshop?
In March 1933, Connolly House on Great Strand Street was burned to the ground by an anti-​communist mob. A classic guide to Dublin published in 1947, titled ‘Dublin’s Fair City’, gave reference New Books, a bookshop selling «Communistic literature», but warned the reader that communism wasn’t a subject that sat well with the Irish people.
Who would think then that a few decades later the Communist Party would own a bookshop in one of the trendiest parts of the city!
History is my job and my passion, and in here one finds classic works by all from Wolfe Tone to Michael O’ Riordan, Orwell to Engels. Of course, a certain Edinburgh socialist boasts his own section.
It is a great place to pop in for a look, a cup of coffee and a chat. The theatre is excellent, among the best small theatres in the city, and anywhere that sells Labour in Irish History at an affordable priceis good in my books.
The risk of gatheting mobs is long gone.

I love Connolly Books. It’s run by a really nice elderly gent who is exactly the kind of person that I’d like to become when I age very ungracefully.
They have very few books for a shop of its size, don’t accept laser and is filled with political information pamphlets.
All this and it sells cheap comics. Get in!

Connolly Books differs from other bookstore because it has a general theme: radical communism. The people who work here are very passionate about the cause. There are leaflets throughout the shop that educate you on this topic. It can be a bit intimidating if you just wandered in looking for a light read. But it’s entirely up to you if you want to buy into their agenda.
The books are the main concern and this place has an interesting selection. I particularly like their graphic novels (the 3 part collection of Maus is selling for 20 Euro) and their children’s books (I saw a lot of Irish folklore).
Another reason to come here is their connection to the New Theatre. It actually runs in the back of the shop.

I guess if I was the radical ideas type this place would be my utopia. When a bookstore’s web address is the communist party of Ireland, you don’t need too much of an imagination to get the gist of the theme within the store.
I wandered in to the echoes of two older men working there speaking in Irish and an American tourist speaking to another chap at the door about South American revolutionaries. I quietly pretended to be interested in the socialist pamphlets whilst praying no one would talk to me.
That said when I did take time to look at the books, they do have a very extensive Irish history list and of course biographies of political radicals. If you are looking for Paris Hilton’s biography don’t come here, actually I dare you to ask for it here and please tell me what happened.