After a difficult two years with lockdowns and extended retail closures, bookshops are well and truly back in business. Today, Thursday March 3, marks World Book Day and to celebrate, we’ve put together a list of some independent bookshops around Ireland to visit and support. Now is the time to celebrate our favourite Irish authors and local bookshops and show them support post-pandemic. It’s vital to support your favourite independent bookshops – our cities and towns would be much less colourful without them. A good book is the perfect antidote to feelings of worry, anxiety and loneliness that many of us may faced over the past couple of years (and continue to face under the current global tragedies) so take some time out, curl up with a new read (plus tea, chocolate and a cosy blanket) and get lost in a brilliant novel …

Main featured image: Books Upstairs

Some independent bookshops to visit are:

Raven Books, Blackrock
Dubray Books (multiple locations)
The Gutter Bookshop, Cow’s Lane, Dublin 2 and Dalkey
Books Upstairs, Dublin 2
Books On The Green, Sandymount
The Company of Books, Ranelagh
Hampton Books, Donnybrook
MoLi shop, Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin 2
Winding Stair Bookshop, Dublin 2
Manor Books, Malahide
The Skerries Bookshop, Skerries, Co Dublin
Village Bookshop, Greystones
Halfway Up The Stairs, Greystones (specialising in children’s books)
Bridge Street Books, Wicklow
Woodbine Books, Kilcullen, Co Kildare
The Maynooth Bookshop, Co Kildare
Just Books, Mullingar
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway
Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway
Kinsale Bookshop, Co Cork
Bantry Bookshop, Co Cork
O’Mahony’s Booksellers, Limerick
The Book Centre, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny
Tertulia Books, Westport
Antonia’s Bookstore, Trim, Co Meath
Sheelagh na Gig bookshop, Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary
Books at One, Louisburgh, Co Mayo
Woulfe’s Bookshop, Listowel, Co Kerry
The Nenagh Bookshop, Nenagh, Co Tipperary
Scéal Eile Books, Ennis, Co Clare

If your favourite independent bookshop isn’t included in this list please email us on digital@thegloss.ie, we’d be happy to update it.

And if you’re wondering what to read, browse Books Editor Orna Mulcahy’s most recent recommendations..