‘Trim just kept calling me back, it’s such a beautiful town...’

In the bestselling  'The Bookseller of Kabul' one of the chief characters, Sultan Khan, owns a bookshop in the Afghanistan capital.
His love of books, however, puts him - and his business - at great risk yet he refuses to be bowed down. Even though he has seen his books burned and destroyed by the Taliban and Communists in turn he continues to sustain his shop; to somehow keep it going, risking his life to acquire texts in neighbouring Pakistan. 
That refusal to be beaten; that intense, great love for books is something Antonia Daly would appreciate. She studied to be an engineer and worked at that profession for a few years but she always loved reading and had a hankering to run her own bookshop. It was well up there in her list of ambitions. 

Some want to climb Mount Everest, others seek to swim the Irish Sea, others long to talk the Camino or do the Lough Derg pilgrimage or perhaps run the Dublin Marathon. For Antonia her ambition was to run her own bookshop - so in 2005 she did just that in Trim of all places - and now, she says, she's the only independent bookseller left in Meath that focuses solely on selling newly published books. 
"I'm the last independent bookseller in Meath, the only one at the moment. Unfortunately we lost Bookwise in Navan a few years ago and somebody might open up another bookshop but at the moment there are not many others around." 

Other outlets, she makes reference to, include Blackbird Books in Navan and the Crannog, Cavan. There is also the Book Market in Kells she also points to, that is also a cafe. However outlets selling just new books are now rare indeed. 
Towards the end of last year the Irish Times published a list of independent booksellers in Ireland and 'Antonia's Bookstore' was in the top 35. An image of her shop was also one of three photographs published with the piece. It was an indication that she, and her store, had attained a certain status in an industry that has had to absorb it's share of shocks in recent times. 

Later this year she will mark 14 years in business and she says she wouldn't have made it this far only for the support of the local people; the people not only from Trim but much further afield to Athboy, Kildalkey and Navan. "I have a regular customer to comes over to me from Navan, he says he's a refugee from Navan. He used to go into Bookwise but now that's closed he travels over to Trim." 
While she loves reading books she can't see herself ever writing one. It's just not on her 'to do' list. Selling books, however, is another thing. Another thing entirely.

ENNISCORTHY
It was while growing up in the county Wexford town that Antonia Daly first developed her love for books - and as is often the case she was influenced by her mother - Mary. 
"I've always loved books and for that I have to thank my mum because books were very important to her and everywhere we went, no matter where we were, we'd find the local bookshop, go in and browse around, we would never turn down the chance to get a book. She had grown up loving books so she wanted us to love books too, it was something we did from a very young age. Read."
Antonia's journey in life so far bears an uncanny resemblence to some of the paths taken by her forefathers. Her great-grandfather John was originally from Trim. One of his children, Antonia's grandfather Tom Daly (her dad's dad) ran the family’s butcher's shop in Bolton Street in Dublin. He met and married Anne Curran (who was also known as Joan) and whose own father had a sweet shop in Bolton Street. 
In time Tom and Anne moved to Summerhill in Meath and ran a shop there. Among their seven children was another John (her dad) who worked in the bank. He married Carlow woman Mary Kearney. They settled in Enniscorthy where they raised, in turn, their daughter Antonia and her brother Steven.  

Antonia studied civil and structural engineering in Bolton Street College, back to the street where her grandparents lived. She talks of that and how, in a funny way, family history can repeat itself. 
She qualified and worked for engineering companies in Dublin. She was content, yet nagging at her - like a stone under a door - was that ambition to run her own bookshop. Again her mother Mary was a big influence. 
"Mum always encouraged us to do the things we wanted to do. She encouraged us and I loved books. I made a comment how I'd love to open a bookshop and she said 'well, you have your degree, you're young enough so give it a shot. If it doesn't work out you have your qualifications to fall back on.'" 
After "thinking about it for two years" she went for it. She gave up her job, made herself known to wholesalers and others in the sector. A major part of the project was finding a suitable site for a shop. She says she was "drawn" to Meath, maybe, she muses, because some of her ancestors were from the Royal County. Again, she muses, about how history can repeat itself. Trim especially, she found attractive. 
"Trim just kept calling me back, it's such a beautiful town, the Tidy Towns Committee is so active, it's a tidy place, lovely flowers, the history, the Castle. The landlord did a beautiful job doing up the shop front, I felt it had to be a bookshop, it drew me into it."
So Antonia and her partner Jason ( who runs his own taxi business) moved from Dublin, to Trim to start their new life and set up 'Antonia's Bookstore' in Navangate.

2005
She says 2005 (when she opened Antonia's Bookstore) was a relatively optimistic time for booksellers. That all changed in 2008 when the recession hit. There were other storms for the industry to get through. There was the advent (for a time at least) of the e-book. There was Kindle. Suddenly there didn't seem to be any shortage of doomsayers foretelling the demise of the book industry - and particularly the independent bookseller. 
There were some battles fought closer to home. Meath Co Council had proposed to stop vehicles from parking on Navangate in front of her shop. Then, eventually, after five years, the idea was abandoned.
"That was a big thing for us because we're on the edge of Trim town one of the reasons it all worked out for us is that there is parking in front of the shop. We have big windows so youngsters can come in on their own, which they love to do and get a book while their parents can keep a eye on them from outside. Older people too can park close to the shop, that's important."
Like the bookseller of Kabul - Antonia stayed the course
- and she has no regrets.

"I absolutely love it, obviously we did have the recession and there were times when you would be quiet, and you might be worried how you are going to pay the bills, but I absolutely love doing this."
And the future? Antonia knows that the nature of the booksellers trade has changed. Now you have to be more proactive in getting people interested in books and she does that by initiatives such as running reading clubs for youngsters during school holidays. She also goes out to schools and has her pop up shop for students who want to look at books. A percentage of profits is returned to the school. She's also the main bookseller for the very successful summer Hinterland Festival in Kells. In such ways she spreads the news.  
The e-book and Kindle revolutions have not changed everything; in fact signs are the printed book is making a surging comeback - and Antonia Daly can certainly claim to be doing her bit for the cause.