Kinsale has a New Library!

 

Kinsale has a New Library!

After two years of hard work, the Cork County Council Library and Arts Service are delighted to announce that the new Kinsale Library opened to the public on Wednesday August 9th. Kinsale library is located at Church Square, Kinsale, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Staffed by Shona, Denis, Stephanie, Sorcha and Susan, you can contact us by calling 021 4774266 or email kinsalelibrary@corkcoco.ie

Known locally as the Old Mill or James O’Neill Building, it was built in the 19th century for James O’Neill, a local entrepreneur with many business interests in Kinsale. Used primarily as a grain store until the 1980s, it was then badly damaged by fire and was subsequently bought by the council and restored, becoming the foundation of today’s library building.

The new state of the art library had 1,286 people visit on the first day with one dedicated member setting up camp at 8.30 a.m. with a seat and packed lunch, and staying with their parent until 5.30 p.m. that evening. There were approximately 8,000 visits to the library in its first two weeks open.

Groups/Events: The library will be running regular events and hosting groups such as book clubs, Irish groups, and craft clubs. There will also be storytime every Wednesday morning. Kinsale staff would love feedback from library users as to what other activities they would like to see take place.

Events: Cork Craft Month are currently showcasing their artwork in the Kinsale Library exhibition space and will be there until Thursday September 7th. The launch of the exhibition was held in the library on the evening of August 10th. Kinsale Atlantic Artists will be displaying their artwork, inspired by Kinsale and the surrounding areas, from mid-September.

For Culture Night on Friday September 22nd, Kinsale Library will have a number of events for young and old, including:

• A story adventure for children with Katy Mullins from 4pm - 4.50pm (aged 5+).
• An art workshop for children with Mia Foley from 5pm - 6.30pm (aged 10 - 12).
• A history talk on The Battle of Kinsale with Dermot Ryan from 7pm - 8pm.
• A story-time with library staff will also take place.

Booking is required for events. Please contact Kinsale Library for more details.

Building Facts:

The library has a ground floor events and exhibition space and public toilet; a first floor with seating, newspapers, and children’s and Young Adults books; and a second floor with Fiction and Reference books, study spaces, public PCs and a printer. There is high speed Wi-Fi throughout the building.

Kinsale Library | Cork County (corkcoco.ie)

A little history of Kinsale’s libraries by Kieran Wyse from the Local Studies Library

As locals and staff welcome the opening of our wonderful new library in Kinsale, we take a look back at library services in Kinsale over the years. Years when the public library service initially ran in tandem with private libraries and had a curious connection with an earlier library.

Shortly after its inception in 1926, Cork County Library set up branches in most population centres throughout the county. These were not branches as we now know them, but smaller units known as centres run by volunteers; by 1930 nearly 130 of them had been established but Kinsale did not have one. This was because of snags to plans for a Carnegie Library in the town, like the ones in Millstreet and Youghal. Generous funding for libraries from the Scottish/American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie had to be supplemented by local contributions that Kinsale had difficulty in raising because of the implications for ratepayers. Once that issue was resolved, there was difficulty in recruiting a librarian and, since nothing came of an offer from a local presentation brother, a library at the municipal hall was considered after the Carnegie application had been withdrawn in 1934.

Book lovers in Kinsale had some alternatives in the absence of their own library. There were library centres not too far away at Dunderrow, Ballinspittle, and the Old Head of Kinsale, while the nuns at the convent loaned out books at no charge for over five decades. There were private libraries at A. W. Acton’s Pearse Street and at the Fisherman’s Hall, Higher Street which was known as St. Multose’s Library, while a Miss Mc Namara continued to operate a private library even after a public library finally opened. An advertisement had appeared in “The Southern Star” on August 27^th 1941 for the position of librarian with a salary of £25 per annum for 10 hours per week and the library that opened shortly afterwards was coincidentally on the very same site where, between 1903 and 1922, a library service was one of the many attractions on offer to a Gentleman’s Club based there.

Image taken from'The Kinsale Record Vol. 1', from the Cork Digital Archive courtesy of Local Studies at Cork County Council

A notebook, which survived a fire that gutted the club, proved educational on the reading habits of the tight knit community of Kinsale. Over four hundred hardbacks as well as periodicals were available as recorded in the notebook containing the name of both borrower and book. There is also information on local reading habits from “Musings on a Library List” by Angela Perkins, from Kinsale Record Volume 1, for consultation at Kinsale Library or at the Local Studies Library.

When the restored building of the Gentleman’s Club reopened as the Municipal Hall in 1941, a new public library was one of various services available and that library would stay there until 1991. The Fitzpatrick family became synonymous with that library for many years as first John (retired in 1973), and then his sister Cathy, served as librarians.

Cathy’s retirement in 1988 brought a great tradition of service to an end and her successor Eileen O’Connell was already well established when the library moved to the Methodist Hall in 1991. The bigger space there produced an instant increase in membership and this trend continued during Eileen’s tenure. A seasonal story reading for children at Christmas and library involvement in Kinsale Arts Festival were among a number of her innovations before Eileen retired in May 2016.

Tom Ryan, Marie McCarthy, and Denis O’Donovan all had separate spells as Kinsale Librarian with a slight increase in opening hours. The staff who will be operating the new library had looked after the old one for its final season.

The old Kinsale Library located at the Methodist Hall