Clare poetry house raises over €20,000 in a week after appeal for new home

One of Ireland’s leading poetry publishers has raised more than €20,000 in just over a week as part of a GoFundMe campaign aimed at securing a permanent home for its bookshop and arts centre after it was forced to vacate its premises of more than a decade.

While the managing director and founder of Salmon Publishing, Jessie Lendennie, described the response to her appeal for a new home as “phenomenal”, a further €30,000 is needed if Salmon is to make the leap to a different premises in Ennistymon, Co Clare before Christmas.

Salmon Publishing has been run by Ms Lendennie for more than 40 years and has more than 700 titles carrying its imprint since the 1980s.

Among the hundreds of poets it has published are Elaine Feeney, Eithne Hand, Fred Johnston, Julian Gough, Gerald Dawe, Rita Ann Higgins and President of Ireland Michael D Higgins.

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In 2012 it opened a bookshop and literary centre in the Co Clare town which has been used as a venue for events, writing residencies and workshops and a cultural hub for the local community.

Over the last decade, it has hosted well over 100 events including poetry readings, music, lectures and seminars. Salmon had hoped to buy the building but in March, the owners decided to use it themselves and Ms Lendennie was given until the end of last month to vacate the property.

“It’s extremely difficult to find a property in Ennistymon,” she said in her GoFundMe appeal. “Property prices are high and there are few suitable places on the market. With luck and wonderful serendipity we found an excellent building on Main Street which will allow us to expand our writing activities. We have an agreement with the owner, but we are short of funds for the final purchase,” she continued.

She said her bank of more than 25 years was “not forthcoming” with a loan and highlighted the urgency of the situation. “We have considerable inventory (30,000 books, three floors of furniture, office equipment, etc.) and we will be given a bit more time to move everything to the new building, but we have to secure the new building,” she said.

She added that there had been an “overwhelming reaction of shock from friends, supporters, and writers locally, nationally and abroad, when they heard that we have to leave our lovely space and, unless we can secure a new premises, leave Ennistymon”.

That reaction prompted the GoFundMe page and within eight days more than €22,000 has been raised.

In a subsequent post Ms Lendennie said the response to the fundraiser was “phenomenal”.

The publisher now has until the end of October “to move everything from our bookshop building on Parliament Street, Ennistymon, to our new place. However, we have to close the purchase on the new place in three weeks; the owners have been great and given us lots of time, but they’re under pressure, too. I’m certain that all will be well, but we still need some financial help”.