Community book shop opens on Meath Street

Books at One is a collective of locally managed community bookshop and it has opened its first Dublin store in the Liberties. 

The shop is a small chain that offers a wide range of accessible and diverse literature. Supported by the One Foundation, they believe there is a book for everyone regardless of educational or economic status. 

“The idea to open in Dublin was brought to the organization back in 2018 but nothing came of it at that time because there wasn’t property available. The reason that we are open now is because Dublin City Council came onboard, they had that vacant premises, and the need was still there for a book shop in the area,” said manager at Books at One Joanne Hunter. 

The One Foundation, which funded the renovation of the shop, is a private philanthropic fund based in Dublin and aims to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people. 

“It is great for the community and now that it’s open its crazy to think there was never a book shop in the area before,” said local resident Mary Hoare. 

There is a real lack of community spaces in the Liberties and while books will be sold during the day, in the evenings the space is open to locals to hold their own social gatherings. 

“We want this building to be about the community so having book clubs, having different events in the shop where people can come meet the author and the kids come in after school to just hang out and some even just come in to record their TikTok’s,” said Hunter. 

They have an excellent selection of books for children and adults with dyslexia. Also putting small lesser-known authors books on the shelves. 

Books at One has two other locations, both in rural Ireland. The Louisburgh shop in Mayo opened in 2016, and the Letterfrack shop in Galway in 2020. The Liberties location has a significant larger reach with the immediate local population being around 23,000.