The Dingle Bookshop is looking very much as it did, when Mike and Camilla were in charge. They are now having a deserved rest while the new owners settle in.
The new owners of the bookshop are Nuala Cassidy and her husband, Martin Bealin, formerly of the multi award-winning Global Village restaurant. Nuala stepped back from the restaurant business a few years ago to devote time to their young family and last August Martin shut up shop at the Global Village, also to have more family time but mindful as well that it was getting harder to make a living out of fine dining.
Liberation from the demands of the restaurant business freed them to look at new possibilities and when Camila Dinkel and Mike Venner put the Dingle Bookshop up for sale after 15 years behind the counter it was an opportunity not to be missed.
“We were wondering how to get out of the restaurant business and then an opportunity to take over the bookshop arose… It was like a dream really,” said Nuala who is leading the way in the new venture with Martin in a supporting role.
Nuala did English in Maynooth and she loves books the thought of running a bookshop never entered her head before now. Still, she doesn’t feel intimidated by the challenge, partly because after running a restaurant, “nothing feels hard” and there’s also the benefit of working in a much more family-friendly business.
“They seem very different but they’re not, really. You’re still serving the people of Dingle; one is food for the soul, the other was food for the body. What’s more important, I wonder?” said Nuala.
And lest anybody should be in any doubt, there is no plan to include a coffee shop, a mini restaurant, or anything to do with food in any corner of the bookshop. “The plan is simply to build on what Camilla and Mike did. Everybody loves a bookshop.”