Kevin Gildeas Brilliant Bookshop, Dun Laogahire, County Dublin
This morning.
Via Irish Times Letters:
In response to Frank McNally’s mention (An Irishman’s Diary, December 5th) of the mini-furore regarding the lack of an apostrophe in the sign above my shop – Kevin Gildeas Brilliant Bookshop – I would like to point out that it is a matter of choosing aesthetics over grammar. An apostrophe would destroy the line of the words.
The shop will be open, to grammarians and others, from tomorrow, December 10th. A 46A (yes, you can get that bus there) will take you to Lower George’s Street, Dún Laoghaire. –
Yours, etc,
Kevin Gildea,
Kevin Gildeas Brilliant Bookshop
Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
FIGHT!
Possessive Attitude (Irish Times Letters)





Rather ironic give Broadsheet’s spelling of Dún Laoghaire in the caption.
Sorry it took a Tan to point it out.
Fnarr fnarr.
would it be churlish to point out that an apostrophe is a component of punctuation rather than grammar?
yours etc
BB
It’s too much for Kevin Gildea to imagine grammar and aesthetics co-existing.
It’s cheap and awful and I hate all block capitals.
Totally agree with him, if he made an aesthetic choice and felt it looked better that way, fine. But i think its bullplop and he just didnt think of it.
I did
Aesthetics over grammar?
Never judge a bookshop by its cover surely.
There Their They’re calm down everyone.
* oldie but goodie
for some reason the morkeshing fashion of stapling an i onto the front of a Something or other widget name has always bothered me
Oooh yeah. That’s a good minor irritation.
I’m not a fan of the American use of on accident. It’s by accident, you fools.
I hate the way Americans say ‘on the weekend’. It’s at the weekend, you sillies.
I could care less
so do you want it or no ?
aghhhhhh
or not !
and if they’re asking, why do they say they’re just wondering
neither could i, irregardless.
that’s literally what i said!
+1 for Bodger’s “Apostrophe Now”
Is that the comedian, Kevin Gildea? Good to see his entrepreneurial spirit; no doubt work is thin on the ground lately. I agree though, the missing apostrophe takes from the brilliance of the enterprise. I’ll drop in all the same.
I remember reading somewhere that George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce nearly had pitched battles over the use of punctuation, including commas, apostrophes, exclamation marks. Probably explains why I could never manage to get past the first paragraph of Ulysses, but thoroughly enjoyed Pygmalion.
…GB Shaw acknowledged Ulysses as a masterpiece…it usually features as the best novel in any language of the 20th century…perhaps your inability to get past the first paragraph may be due to some reason to do with you…rather than the book…
In fairness the first paragraph of Ulysses is 37 pages long….
…in fairness, the first paragraph of Ulysses is 45 words long…I really thought this inverted snobbery about what is acknowledged as the finest novel ever written was a thing of the past…
Brilliant indeed! No more online shopping. Kevin Gildea is a national treasure