Red Ink Books in Dublin is such a great spot. It's great for browsing, meeting people and buying great Anarchist, art, cult books and fanzines. I would not have sold half as many zines only for it. Murder City Records also shares the space and sells anything from oi, rockabilly, thrash, punk, crust etc. I could praise and praise it, but I think you get the general idea. 1. Would you give a bit of history/background to the shop? How many folks are involved etc? Well, We originally started out as a distro selling books, zines and records at gigs. We did it both in the states and here in ireland for about 2 years. We eventually settled back to Dublin after being away for a year and a half. We noticed that people had a really big interest in the books and zines and we also figured that you coulden't get these types of books anywhere else in the country, so we decided to start looking for a space or shop to try and set up something more permanent. We came across a space in a basement underneath cafe irie in temple bar. The rent was actually alright considering the area, so we decided to go for it. We opened up a week after the may day protests. May 8th 2004. That shop worked really well, so after 3 months we decide to move to a bigger shop up the road, over flip clothing. The basement got a bit much with out fresh air and no natural light. This place had windows and everything. Also, more noticable. We are still over Flip clothing, we share the space with our friends Murder City Records. So in all, 4 people work there but the two shops are seperate, just in the same room. At the moment it's just me and Natalia running the book shop. 2. How do you keep it a float, since your not making anything off the fanzines? The fanzines are the top selling thing in the shop,we take a little off the intrnational zines as they all do wholsale rates on them, but we do sell a lot of books too. Also DVDs and a few cds. Zapatista coffee also sells really well. However, it does just keep a float, we both work there voluntarily. Me and Natalia also have other jobs. 3. Was it hard to find premises in Dublin considering the outragous rental for shops in the city center? When we were looking, we wern't looking very hard. it was more the fact that we found the cheap space in the basement that we dedcided to open the shop. Our rent now is crazy! We really needed to share with someone else, it's a just lucky that Bushie and Ann (murder city records) Were looking to set up at that time. We want the shop to be bigger, but i don't think that'll happen in this town. It's far too greedy and you see businesses' closeing down all the time. The city is eating it's self alive. Only really big corporations can aford the rent they're asking. Example, Starbucks is opening up not 2 minutes away from us. 4. Do many folks from outside of Dublin visit the shop? Yes, thankfully loads of them and they're all lovely! Boggers, muckers,culthies, all of them. Also many tourists and traveling kids. I love em all! The best part is meeting other peole from around ireland and chatting with them. Except people from Rosscommon, yikes! 5. Anything you'd like to add? Why do people still shop in coorporate book shops? You're killing your friends and the children! Support Rebel book stores and record stores! Willie http://biblioactivedublin.org/