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IF YOU HAD told me two years ago that I would be working in my father’s bookshop today, my answer would have probably been telling you to take a hike.
Back then, I was paddling my own canoe so to speak, but here I am now, unpacking boxes of fresh books, stacking shelves and loving it.
Life is funny like that.
Two years ago, I was working for HP as a business forecaster, forecasting worldwide sales for printer cartridges, while studying towards a master’s in Data Analytics. As far as I was concerned, that was my fit. My future was in American multinationals with all the positives and negatives that brings.
I hadn’t counted on the negatives hitting me so suddenly.
In February 2017, HP announced that they were pulling out of Ireland with the loss of all 500 jobs. To say it was a shock to the system would be an understatement, having found out just a couple of weeks earlier that my wife was expecting our first child.
Things were changing.
When I started in HP in 2011 jobs were few and far between. The job market in 2017 was a completely different kettle of fish. I was now a Data Analyst; catnip for recruiters. My next step was decided.
I lined up another multinational, ready to start as soon as my redundancy date came. Then a cup of coffee changed my path.
My father has worked in the book trade for over 40 years. In 1985, he took over the bookshop in St. Patricks College, Maynooth. Three years later, he opened The Maynooth Bookshop, in the centre of what was then a village, to try to level out the extreme seasonality of the university book trade.
Over a cup of coffee and a chat with Dad on a Saturday morning, the realisation that with no succession plan at some point both of those shops would be gone hit me.
Those two shops had been a massive part of my life. I spent every morning before school in the university shop with my dad, sometimes helping, more often sitting in his chair with my feet on the desk pretending to be the boss (that’s what an eight-year-old thinks the boss does).
The idea that they would be gone was unfathomable.
So here I am. As I write this, I have spent just over a year working between the two bookshops. To say it’s different is cutting it mild.
I have yet to hear someone talk about a teambuilding event, an end-of-year review, or even, heaven forbid, how going forward we will need to leverage scalable potential.
On the flip side, I’ve no pension, bonus or free cups of coffee but hey, swings and roundabouts.
Fifty+ hour weeks in the shops are the norm and the rest of the time I’m thinking about them, trying to grow our social media presence or updating our website.
Sleepless nights have become a regular event, but I’m getting over that by sending myself middle-of-the-night emails of the things that are swimming in my head.
We have nine full-time staff and a number of part timers who rely on the doors
staying open. I’m IT support, marketing, customer service, logistics and maintenance depending on the day of the week and the issue at hand. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
It might sound like I’m regretting this career change but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every day is different. I can make changes and see the results almost straight away; if it works we keep it, if it doesn’t move on and try something else.
I have rediscovered my love of books and bookshops.
I’ve been banned from bringing more books home so I have a “to be read” pile on my
desk. Anywhere I go now, I seek out the local bookshop. Independent bookshops are as unique as the people who own them, each one has something different.
The bookseller’s passions seep from the shelves. I guarantee we have the best selection of bee books in an indie shop thanks to my father’s other love, beekeeping.
As I’ve written this, I have tried to think of what the point of my story is.
I guess there are two things.
Firstly, when I was made redundant I never expected to end up where I am now. It was the kick up the behind I needed – to see what was right in front of me and it’s a decision I will never regret.
I hope it might inspire someone else to take a leap of faith onto a different path.
Secondly: support your local shops.
Bookshops, jewellers, motor factors, clothes shops or whatever they might be. Local businesses pay commercial rates, taxes, water charges, employ people in local
economies, and turn our main streets into bustling centres.
It might not be possible to buy local every time you need something, but if even 10% of the usual traffic going to offshore online retailers went to local shops, it would give a massive boost to the local economy.
For me, I’m planning some blue-sky thinking and going forward I’m looking to leverage scalable potential. I’ll kick the habit soon.
Cian Byrne is on the Committee of Bookselling Ireland, whose inaugural Irish Book Week is taking place this week (until 2 November. The Maynooth Bookshop will be hosting a reading with children’s author Alison Healy on 1 November and a book signing with author Donal Ryan on 3 November.
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I wonder why….nobody was allowed to have any other medical problem but Covid, I work in a hospital and they were nowhere near full capacity, none of them, public or private, and what on earth was the thinking behind stopping screening, bizarre.
@Jun Stone: A scandal of epic proportions.
@Jun Stone: the state of the health service in this country. We really need to get on top of this. It should our number 1 priority as a nation
@Jun Stone: two of my friends both had minor surgery recently without any problems. One was two weeks ago and the other was a month ago. They were ongoing issues causing discomfort but needed to be done. In the past they had been cancelled, as in last year, I must say I was shocked to hear they got them done while all I see are articles like this during covid. Are they just not, or were they just not preforming more serious surgeries /appointments etc?
@Jun Stone: If you work in a hospital then you should be more than aware that patients were admitted, patients were examined, fully investigated, scanned with CT and MRI, reviewed by multiple teams, received chemo/radiotherapy and operated on during lockdown. You may not have worked 24+ hour shifts during lockdown but I and my colleagues did.
@Philip Kavanagh: and many more (including myself) had follow up cancer scans cancelled. I had two appointments in two separate Dublin hospitals cancelled during the lockdown. One has been rescheduled so far
@Jun Stone: couldn’t agree more. Frankly, having looked at the IFR as things become more clear through proper testing, covid-19 seems to be not as infectious as we initially feared. Even the CDC in the US have released similar findings. I was actually in A&E in April in Castlebar and found that I was brought into the covid-19 triage setting despite having not had covid symptoms – I had chest pain suspected to be linked to heart issues which thankfully was found to be a bacterial infection. I also saw old people brought into the same ward even though they hadn’t been confirmed to have covid-19. So my opinion is if that practise is common to other hospitals then many cases were likely transmitted in the hospital. My great aunt has now fallen ill with a stroke as her routine check ups since her stent placement have ceased. My grandmother who has heart problems has also had her quarterly check ups cancelled indefinitely. All in all, in my circles I have seen lockdown cause more damage than covid-19. My mother had covid-19 in March and was sick with a bad chest infection for about 3 weeks but recovered with steroids. In fact, that’s what most people I know who’ve had say they have had. About 5 years ago I was out of work for 2 weeks and totally bed ridden with viral bronchitis, so I’m not really sure what to believe. I agree we should take measures but I’m not so sure lockdown is in the best interest of total public health in all its facets. I know people have used Sweden as an example but the deaths per million are more or less the same as Denmark. Anyway, let’s look after the vulnerable, and not forget that people with other diseases which need attention are also vulnerable!
@Anna: I’m not and cannot comment on individual cases. @Jun Stone claims that non-Covid patients were ignored or sacrificed on the altar of Coronavirus. I am saying from first hand experience that her comment is a lie designed only for click-bait. I would be very interested to know what hospital she works in and what her exact role entails. Her comment also implies that the hospitals (and therefore their staff) were doing half-nothing during the lockdown. Again so far off the mark, she clearly doesn’t know what she’s commenting on.
@Philip Kavanagh: and many had their vital routine follow ups cancelled . Two in my house included. Do not minimise that because it’s very serious . Simple but vital echocardiograms are cancelled , stress tests cancelled , all bowel cancer follow ups & screenings are cancelled. Breast check cancelled , need I continue ? Chemotherapy is not cancelled thankfully or aa&E but that’s about it in public hospitals .
@Laurel Didn’t: Did you treat Covid patients? Did you make the decision to put them on Airvo or bipap or just intubate them? Did you prone them? Did you send them for CTPA because you had a gut feeling that they had lung clots? Have you spent the last month calling patients who were admitted with Covid (and were lucky to survive) to hear how they are still short of breath, suffer from fatigue, have not gotten their sense of smell back, etc., etc.)? I lived in Sweden, I speak Swedish and I worked in a Swedish hospital. Sweden has had 523.71 deaths per million. Denmark has 103.36 deaths per million. You’re either not good with statistics or you’re just lying.
@Isabel Oliveira: I’m not minimising anything. And I certainly will not be accused of taking missed scans and screening as not being serious. I meet and treat patients everyday. Also believe it or not, frontline workers have health issues and families too. The delays in screening and treatments affect them also. What I said is that the health service did not simply grind to a halt for months. Patients were investigated and treated, and the best was done in an extraordinary situation.
@Sam Glynn: that was the plan, everyone public patient and no electives to be carried out? There may have been some underlying concerns re your friends procedures even though they may appear to have been minor?
@Philip Kavanagh: of course they were! nobody’s implying that nothing happened in hospitals during Covid but where I work and the affiliated public hospital were not operating to capacity and my husband also works in a private hospital, different one to me, and it was also not operating to capacity, maybe different where you work.
@Philip Kavanagh: do not twist what I said I work in a private hospital for a consultant, running clinics and booking procedures and theatre for same…no clinics were run during the Covid pandemic period and only cancer ops were done. The hospital was not full. No routine screening was done . Hope that answers your question. I’m early 60’s and not bothered about ‘clicks’!!!!
@Isabel Oliveira: you know me, I don’t lie…hope your well.
@Jun Stone: So you do admin in a private hospital….You don’t examine, admit, work-up, treat and care for patients. You have no idea what issues patients were presenting with to ED during lockdown. And I am not twisting your words – to quote “nobody was allowed to have any other medical problem but Covid”. Click bait at its most obvious.
@Philip Kavanagh: actually my daughter is a doctor in yet another hospital here in Dublin treating Covid patients. Try not to be so condescending, I may be ‘just admin’ in your opinion but I have first hand knowledge of what actually went on in the hospital I work in as I have been working all through the pandemic.
@Philip Kavanagh: I appreciate your points Philip and I humbly acknowledge that I am not a doctor nor have I treated covid patients. But I did ask the team in Castlebar how busy they were and their response was not full capacity. Where are you getting your info about Sweden? Japan is another example – low deaths. Seasonal influenza causes up to 650,000 deaths per year according to the WHO. Currently we have 560k from covid-19 and given how deaths have been terribly reported perhaps it’s less in reality. Philip we’re not denying that it’s a nasty bug to catch, but given the perspective the aforementioned figures grant, I’m not pro lockdown at all. Re Sweden, I’m comparing Scania with Hovedstaden and Sjealand. Most comparable in terms of locality, demographics etc.
In the VHI or Laya … no problem … you can jump the queue …
If you can pay … get seen today.
If you cant pay .. join the long delay!
Yet EVERY taxpayer pays for the public health service to the tune of €19 Billion a year .It is 11% of GDP .. whereas other countries spend far less at avg of 9% of GDP
What a despicable 2-Tier society is Ireland!
Sign the Petition and demand that this abomination be fixed and fast.
Counting trolleys is a laugh … put a few production engineers in charge of that place and get proper metrics and processes in place … 4 procedues per day v 8 in private hospitals v 16 in other EU countries ….
@Neuville-Kepler62F: Signed and shared.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: It’s not going to happen, the various imbedded unions will stand in the way of any meaningfull progress, it would probably be cheaper if the government paid for all our private health care at this stage. No government over the past 30 years has ever been able to tackle the problems in our health service.
@Alan: but they all said they would.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: Very good comment te how inefficient public hospitals are compared to private ones. We are spending an absolute fortune on healthcare as a country and not getting good value at all. Our doctors and nurses are wonderful. The organisation is a shambles.
@Alan: .. interesting idea. outsource all current public health to private management. Dont limit to Ireland.. look at outsource to other EU countries. Nothing should be discounted at this stage to sort out the sorry mess. – Belfast Bus!
Where is MM now and O Brien his lackey
That figure was already in the hundreds of thousands long before we’d ever even heard of Covid-19. Trying to blame appalling waiting lists on this pandemic is a bit rich, and ignores almost twenty years of similar numbers.
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