His first bed was the bottom drawer of a bookcase, and many a hardback paid for many a meal. Yet Conor Kenny, one of the successful Galway bookshop family, does not look as if he needs counselling because of it.
In fact, none of his siblings is any the worse for the experience. Reared by extraordinary parents, who laid the foundations for a highly-successful business, the Kenny clan has revealed all in a documentary made by Parzival Productions; "all" being the extent to which the family members genuinely do get on in serving the extensive Kenny empire.
Mention the surname in the US Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, Yale University, or among leading academics in Tokyo, Japan, and doors will automatically open. The Galway bookshop now supplies 150 libraries throughout the US, and international mail orders have to be taken away by the lorryload. These are just some of the staggering facts recorded in the documentary, which was directed by Donal Haughey and produced by Tomas Hardiman. Commissioned by the family, the film was intended to be made as a corporate video, but has become much more than that.
The director and producer were given a free hand, and took it. The result is a fascinating insight into a business that many might take for granted.
Most of the filming took place during and after Granny Kenny's 80th birthday, and the great esteem in which her children and 21 grandchildren hold her is a highlight of the story.
When her husband, Des, took a job in Galway Textiles to help make ends meet, the marketing experience he gained there was put to good use. Early marketing ploys included writing "thank you" notes to customers, at a time when most books left only on loan because people could not afford to buy.
When the couple opened an art gallery as part of the bookshop, their son, Tom, remembers that their friends regarded it as "another act of insanity". Yet is has worked, and now the mavericks are an institution.
Books in the Blood, as the documentary is entitled, has been entered in several film festivals, along with other recent productions from Parzival. A distribution deal has also been secured with a US company to sell both it and a separate Parzival film on John Behan's famine ship in the US.
Parzival Productions has already been decorated at the recent Celtic Film and Television Festival. It won the best new director category for Most Important, a film starring Colm Meaney. That has also been nominated for an award at the respected Banff Television Festival in Canada.
Meanwhile the Kenny Gallery in Middle Street has the latest of many exhibitions on display. Fiddle and Pint by the German artist Gertrude Degenhardt was celebrated with music by Anne Conroy-Burke on guitar and Joe Burke on box last Friday, while Bob Quinn did the honours.
Catch "Albert Einstein meets Mairin O'D" and some of her other zany images on show between now and November 15th at the Kenny Gallery, open Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
