{"id":657346,"date":"2026-10-17T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/657346\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T07:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T07:30:13","slug":"sales-of-sally-rooney-books-surge-in-northern-ireland-after-publisher-stops-distribution-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/657346\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales of Sally Rooney books surge in Northern Ireland after publisher stops distribution \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customers at a Belfast<\/a> bookshop have been \u201cpanic buying\u201d novels by award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney<\/a> since her publisher announced it would no longer distribute her work in the UK due to her support for Palestine Action.<\/p>\n

By 11am on Friday, Rooney\u2019s books were sold out at No Alibis on Botanic Avenue in the south of the city.<\/p>\n

Scenes from the BBC adaptation of Conversations with Friends<\/a> \u2013 the Co Mayo-based author\u2019s first book \u2013 were filmed in the independent store.<\/p>\n

The text is on a first-year reading course at nearby Queen\u2019s University<\/a> Belfast. No Alibis owner David Torrans said staff were left \u201csaddened and worried\u201d by Faber & Faber\u2019s announcement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly believe this is a freedom of speech issue. As long as we can source distribution of Sally Rooney\u2019s books, we will continue to sell them,\u201d Torrans told The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

Stock arrived at the shop from a Dublin wholesaler on Friday afternoon, with copies of Rooney\u2019s Intermezzo<\/a> and Normal People<\/a> lining the shelves at 3pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had people yesterday who were in a bit of a panic and bought the books,\u201d said Lexi Ward, who has worked at No Alibis for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne woman came in earlier who said she had never been in our shop before \u2013 but after seeing that news it made her want to support bookshops more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooney donated some of the proceeds from the sale of her books to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed in the UK last year as a terrorism-supporting organisation.<\/p>\n

According to Faber & Faber, British anti-terrorism legislation means it cannot pass on earnings to her from her book sales.<\/p>\n

\"SallySally Rooney: Faber & Faber says Britain’s anti-terrorism legislation means it cannot pass on earnings to her from her book sales. Photograph: Simone Padovani\/Awakening\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Torrans said Rooney had attended events at the shop for many years. She visited the bookshop when Normal People \u2013 which sold more than one million copies in the UK alone \u2013 was first published in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are books of fiction about people\u2019s experiences. They\u2019re not books of a political or polemical nature,\u201d said Torrans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as we\u2019re concerned, it seems to be an issue where someone\u2019s creative product is being curtailed and restricted. It\u2019s got nothing to do with politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demand for Rooney\u2019s books at Bridge Books in the market town of Dromore, Co Down, had \u201cgone through the roof\u201d, according to its owner.<\/p>\n

Lesley Price said sales at her independent book shop had more than quadrupled since Wednesday. Many were online orders from Britian.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Will Sally Rooney\u2019s books now be removed from shops across the UK?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Like Torrans, she sources stock from a Dublin-based wholesaler and distributor. \u201cI have just managed to get a little emergency top-up from Dublin to fulfil orders,\u201d she said on Friday. \u201cBut I\u2019ll have none left by the end of the day. Percentage wise, sales have gone a bit bonkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development has also led to a surge in sales at a Galway bookshop. T\u00f3mas Kenny, who co-runs Kennys Bookshop in Galway with his sister Sarah, said sales of Rooney\u2019s books had increased tenfold.<\/p>\n

Numbers were \u201cstill increasing\u201d, with sales \u201csubstantially higher\u201d on Friday morning than at the same time on Thursday, he said.<\/p>\n

There was a \u201cconsiderable uptake in orders\u201d of Rooney\u2019s books from \u201cthe UK in particular\u201d, Sarah Kenny said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the bookshop posted on Instagram: \u201cWe have seen an upsurge in sales of Sally Rooney\u2019s books to the UK today. Please note that you can still buy her books from Kennys Bookshop and other bookshops in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the post, Sarah said they received a \u201chuge response\u201d from people commenting that they were buying Rooney\u2019s books in solidarity with her.<\/p>\n

She said it had been \u201cso shocking\u201d for the public as it was \u201ceffectively censorship of her books in the UK over her political views\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why it\u2019s such a mind-boggling story,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see how this is going to pan out. It\u2019s obviously a wider political issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shipped to over 100 countries from Kenny\u2019s and her books have international appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has confirmed she would speak directly to Britain\u2019s foreign secretary Ed Miliband<\/a> after it emerged that Rooney\u2019s work would no longer be distributed in Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customers at a Belfast bookshop have been \u201cpanic buying\u201d novels by award-winning Irish author Sally Rooney since her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4501,1556,61,60,43,92832,10365,1577],"class_list":["post-657346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-belfast","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-queens-university","tag-sally-rooney","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}