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Originally published in the Irish Examiner 11/5/24 Red Books in Wexford town stocks secondhand, antiquarian, and collectible books as well as a selection of new books, with a focus on local writers Wally O’Neill owns Red Books, an independent bookshop in Wexford town.  It stocks secondhand, antiquarian, and collectible books as well as a selection of new books, with a focus on local writers. How did you get into the books business? I was always into books. Before the recession, I was in construction, then with the crash, I ended up doing several different jobs and eventually got into being...

Wexford's annual Opera Festival is always accompanied by many fringe art and performance events.  This year was no different and included the Red Books literary fringe festival – “Theatre in the Bookshop”. Red Books hosted sixteen events, comprising of live music, spoken-word, book launches, history and family friendly events like Dinosaurs in the Bookshop and the Halloween Creepy Classics Carnival. Four new Wexford books were launched as part of the festival. “Its always important to remember our rich literary heritage and highlight the current culture of writing in Wexford during the world famous Opera Festival,” Red Books owner Wally O’...

Originally published in the Wexford People (29th August 2024 by Simon Bourke) Such is the reputation of Wexford’s Red Books that it is now attracting international attention, visitors from as far afield as the Jilin province in north east China. Not content to sample the some 250,000 books on offer in its myriad of shelves, halls, and hidden areas, these two visitors to Wally O’Neill’s store arrived with their camera and microphones, ready to make a film. “One of our customers is a Chinese girl who’s now living in Wexford,” explained Wally, “and the guy who’s making the documentary is...

Red Books will run its own fringe festival this year during the annual Wexford Opera Festival. The Book Fringe will feature four local book launches, an art exhibition, a presentation of rare incunbula, a chess tournament, poetry, spoken-word, music, history, comedy, horror and the annual Wexford Book Fair. Highlights of the ‘Book Fringe’ will include the launch of issue 5 of the Wexford Bohemian on Saturday the 21st of October, an immersive fusing of art and storytelling in Local Alchemy on Thursday the 26th and a night of amazing local music at the Grand Auld Opera on Friday the 3rd...

The Annual Graiguenamanagh Town of Books Festival returns this weekend and one bookseller has come up with a ‘novel’ idea to promote reading. Wally O’ Neill, owner of Red Books in Wexford and Gorey, and one of twenty-five booksellers in the town of books, is giving away a wheelbarrow of new books to one lucky customer over the weekend of August 18th - 20th. “The Town of Books Festival is renown across Ireland as the premier annual event for book lovers of all ages,” Mr O’ Neill said. “It’s probably the biggest gathering of bibliophiles in the state and, in...