Want to feel part of something special?


Tertulia (what is it?)Â
Tertulia is a Spanish word for a circle of people who meet regularly to discuss literature, art, what’s going on in the world or just to gossip!
We all want to feel part of something and we envisage Tertulia as a space to reach out to people, provide a forum for stretching our assumptions about the world, enjoy a coffee, a glass of wine, a conversation, or lose yourself in a really great book.
Here is a little about us & our adventures!Â
NEIL PAUL:
Co-owner Neil Paul, born in London, of Irish parents, brought up in Pimlico, around the corner from the Houses of Parliament. As a child Neil played in (the grounds of) Buckingham Palace with the servants’ children who went to the same school. Neil’s fascination with books began from about 13 when he discovered Science Fiction and Fantasy. After leaving school, Neil’s other passions, photography and travel competed with his love of books but this has been a constant in his life nevertheless.  During the punk explosion in London, Neil attended at least three concerts a week, seeing all the up and coming bands, taking photographs whenever he could of bands like the Stranglers and the Clash. These he developed while working as a trainee dark room assistant (not a job we see advertised much these days). In between times, Neil took himself off to a kibbutz in Israel, taking the “Magic Bus”, or as Neil refers to it as the Tragic Bus, travelling three days and three nights non-stop across Europe. Neil also spent three years in California working in many jobs including in Hollywood, working on the TV series “Moonlighting” staring Bruce Willis.

BRID CONROY:
Co-owner Brid Conroy, born in Dublin city centre, also of Irish parents, developed a love of books from early on. Brid’s grandmother sent her on twice weekly visits to Capel St Library to seek out any Mills and Boons books her Nanna hadn’t yet read (Her Nanna left a small red dot on the inside cover of those she had read!). When Brid herself had read all the children’s books they had in the library, she too started to read the Mills and Boons books (from about the age of 9) and has been a hopeless romantic every since. In 1987, like many of Brid’s peers at that time, went to seek fame and fortune in London. Brid worked as Financial Controller for Ogilvy and Mather, Advertising Agency, where she got invited to a party at which Neil was in attendance. So whatever about fame and fortune, she met Neil, her future husband. At the time Brid had just qualified as an accountant and they both decided to take off on a round the world ticket for a year.

Naming of our daughter

Neil loves movies as well as music, books and photography. When I moved in with him to his bachelor pad in Pimlico London, there was a poster hanging in the front room of a movie called, ”Rumble Fish”. It’s a Francis Ford Coppola kind of cult movie staring Matt Dillon as the main character called “Rusty James”.  It’s filmed in black and white with just his fish in colour. That poster became the backdrop of our new shared life together so when I became pregnant, the name of our child was without a doubt to be Rusty James, whether it be a boy or a girl. Our daughter now calls herself Rusty but we still call her Rusty James.
Accony School Reunion
In 2009, we hosted a school reunion for all the past pupils of the villages of Accony, Emlagh, Doughmakeon and Askillaun, County Mayo. 450 attended a Mass on the day in the school yard. From our back door, overlooking the sea, from the “Girls” entrance, I watched the past pupils retrace their steps from the villages they came from. We are so privileged to be part of this amazing community.
Masters in Philosophy
Philosophy is about conversation, exploration and experimentation (with ideas) and in general, an effort to achieve greater understanding of whatever topic is under discussion. Philosophy Foundation
It’s corny I know but I have always wanted “world peace”. Since an early age, in between reading Mills and Boons, I sought to understand the meaning of life. So, three years ago, I undertook a Masters in Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, focusing on International Peace Studies. What a joy, to take time from my normal life, and study the conditions of war and peace in our world, to meet amazing like-minded people, to have the shelves of Trinity Library at my disposal, to stretch and challenge what I know about this world. We are what we think are, and what we think today is what will make our tomorrow.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
Tertulia Philosophy Favourites
-
The Keys to Kindness
€20.90 Add to cart -
The Problem of Democracy
€27.99 Add to cart -
Bloodbath Nation
€29.99 Add to cart -
A Year to Change Your Mind
€20.90 Add to cart -
How to Meet Your Self
€24.60 Add to cart -
Mind Full
€14.99 Add to cart -
Capitalist Realism
€11.06 Add to cart -
Calm Your Soul
€12.29 Add to cart -
Neuropedia
€12.29 Add to cart -
The Rules to Break
€15.98 Add to cart -
Life Is Short
€22.13 Add to cart -
The Cresent Moon
€7.95 Add to cart -
Our Only Home
€18.72 Add to cart -
Handbook to Higher Consciousness
€27.36 Add to cart -
Talaat Pasha
€42.11 Add to cart -
Rewriting Our Stories
€14.94 Add to cart -
Benedictus
€17.86 Add to cart -
Edible Economics
€20.90 Add to cart -
How to Grieve
€18.44 Add to cart -
The Genetic Lottery
€18.50 Add to cart -
Viral Justice
€30.75 Add to cart -
Web of Lies
€19.95 Add to cart -
China After Mao
€20.90 Add to cart -
Breaking the Social Media Prism
€18.44 Add to cart -
Capitalism
€26.99 Add to cart -
On Being Nice
€12.29 Add to cart -
Road to Repeal
€25.00 Add to cart -
The Storm Is Here
€18.44 Add to cart -
How to Be a Politician
€20.90 Add to cart -
God
€15.98 Add to cart -
Can Ireland be One?
€16.95 Add to cart -
The Culture of Democracy
€20.90 Add to cart -
Joined-Up Thinking
€27.06 Add to cart -
The Wrath to Come
€26.99 Add to cart -
Understanding Race
€14.75 Add to cart -
The Female Factor
€27.99 Add to cart -
Great LGBTQ+ Speeches
€15.98 Add to cart -
Surrounded by Narcissists, Or, How to Stop Other People’s Egos Ruining Your Life
€12.29 Add to cart -
The Rules of Democracy
€15.98 Add to cart -
Race to the Bottom
€12.29 Add to cart -
Art Against Despair
€27.06 Add to cart -
The Power of Women
€12.29 Add to cart -
United Nation
€19.67 Add to cart -
Autism Abracadabra
€18.44 Add to cart -
The Transgender Issue
€13.52 Add to cart -
A More Loving World
€14.76 Add to cart -
Geopedia
€12.29 Add to cart -
In Search of Madness
€17.99 Add to cart -
This Woman’s Work
€17.99 Add to cart -
Liberalism and Its Discontents
€20.90 Add to cart -
Buddhist Folk Tales
€15.98 Add to cart -
A Human History of Emotion
€24.60 Add to cart -
Tibetan Yoga
€17.99 Add to cart -
Yoga Happy
€24.60 Add to cart -
Age Proof
€17.99 Add to cart -
On Consolation
€20.90 Add to cart -
The Struggle for Inclusion
€28.80 Add to cart -
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
€15.99 Add to cart -
Manifest
€21.55 Add to cart -
Heart Thoughts
€15.59 Add to cart -
Project Management
€9.59 Add to cart -
Negotiating
€9.59 Add to cart -
Atlas of the Heart
€24.00 Add to cart -
Total Meditation
€10.99 Add to cart -
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
€8.60 Add to cart -
The Power of Geography
€12.90 Add to cart -
The Brain
€12.29 Add to cart -
Varieties of Melancholy
€18.00 Add to cart -
Raising Feminist Boys
€18.95 Add to cart -
The Authority Gap
€20.39 Add to cart -
Twilight of Democracy
€12.29 Add to cart -
Life on a Knife’s Edge
€17.99 Add to cart -
Understanding Development
€13.19 Add to cart -
The Musical Human
€20.39 Add to cart -
What White People Can Do Next
€10.36 Add to cart -
Black Skin, White Masks
€11.99 Add to cart -
Life’s Edge
€20.39 Read more -
Buddhism for Beginners
€11.99 Add to cart -
Perimenopause power
€16.49 Add to cart -
Reclaiming the European Street: Speeches on Europe and the
€25.00 Add to cart -
The Law of Attraction
€7.50 Add to cart -
Creating Your Best Life
€18.29 Add to cart -
Thought economics
€20.39 Add to cart -
Tiny Habits
€12.29 Add to cart -
The Irrational Ape
€11.99 Add to cart -
Are you there God? It’s me, Ellen
€16.99 Add to cart -
How to Be Content
€15.98 Add to cart -
How to Give
€15.98 Add to cart -
Surrounded by Psychopaths, Or, How to Stop Being Exploited by Others
€13.52 Add to cart -
Meditation Made Easy
€9.67 Add to cart -
The gift
€18.70 Add to cart -
Open
€17.99 Add to cart -
The Truths We Hold
€17.99 Add to cart -
Kant’s Philosophical Revolution
€19.19 Add to cart -
The Little Book of Politics
€12.29 Add to cart -
The game of life and how to play it
€12.29 Add to cart -
Preventing Palestine
€22.79 Add to cart -
Brief answers to the big questions
€12.28 Add to cart -
Difficult women
€20.39 Read more -
The good state
€20.39 Add to cart -
Philosophies of India
€24.00 Add to cart -
Alarums and excursions
€30.00 Add to cart -
How to argue with a racist
€15.59 Add to cart -
The lost history of liberalism
€20.39 Add to cart -
Black wave
€17.99 Add to cart -
Hiking with Nietzsche
€11.99 Add to cart -
Who owns religion?
€31.20 Add to cart -
Outspoken
€17.99 Add to cart -
How to Think About God
€15.98 Add to cart -
Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart
€15.98 Add to cart -
Migrations
€17.99 Add to cart -
A world divided
€36.00 Add to cart -
Viral Economies
€26.40 Add to cart -
The irrational ape
€17.99 Add to cart -
Learning from the Germans
€24.00 Read more -
This land is our land
€17.99 Add to cart -
How to be an antiracist
€20.39 Add to cart -
An Introduction to Philosophy
€9.82 Add to cart -
Surrounded by Idiots
€12.28 Add to cart -
A monk’s guide to happiness
€15.59 Read more -
The Ungrateful Refugee
€15.59 Read more -
Live while you can
€16.79 Add to cart -
12 Rules for Life
€13.50 Add to cart -
The good immigrant USA
€17.99 Add to cart -
Talking to My Daughter
€12.29 Add to cart -
Notes on a nervous planet
€10.79 Add to cart -
Rescuing human rights
€29.99 Add to cart -
Diderot and the art of thinking freely
€30.49 Add to cart -
Good Vibes, Good Life
€14.20 Add to cart -
Money
€9.95 Add to cart -
Atomic habits
€20.89 Add to cart -
The Unwomanly Face of War
€11.99 Add to cart -
A History of Modern Irish Women’s Literature
€38.39 Add to cart -
Connect
€16.79 Read more -
How to Die
€15.98 Add to cart -
Empowering mantras for awesome women
€9.83 Add to cart -
A Little History of Religion
€12.29 Add to cart -
The late Sigmund Freud
€29.99 Add to cart -
Homo deus
€14.20 Add to cart -
The daily stoic
€13.52 Add to cart -
In a Different Voice
€23.94 Add to cart -
Doing Good Better
€12.09 Add to cart -
AI
€15.98 Add to cart -
How to Grow Old
€15.98 Add to cart -
Modern China
€11.06 Add to cart -
Astrology For Beginners
€6.99 Add to cart -
We should all be feminists
€7.19 Add to cart -
The Art of Thinking Clearly
€11.06 Add to cart -
Astronomy
€7.39 Add to cart -
The winner effect
€13.52 Add to cart -
Creating Harmony
€17.94 Add to cart -
A little history of philosophy
€12.28 Add to cart -
The Magic
€15.59 Add to cart -
Global Economic History
€11.06 Add to cart -
Can Intervention Work?
€21.59 Add to cart -
Discover politics
€7.19 Add to cart -
The moral imagination
€22.19 Add to cart -
The Wealth of Nations
€12.29 Add to cart -
What the Buddha Thought
€29.95 Add to cart -
A new earth
€13.52 Add to cart -
Holy Warriors
€8.99 Add to cart -
Women who run with the wolves
€15.99 Add to cart -
Benedictus
€18.90 Add to cart -
Meditations
€9.59 Add to cart -
Good behaviour
€11.99 Add to cart -
Healing Love Through the Tao
€17.99 Add to cart -
Divine Beauty
€12.90 Add to cart -
Cutting through spiritual materialism
€15.59 Add to cart -
The power of now
€13.40 Add to cart -
Aristotle
€10.79 Add to cart -
Anam Cara
€12.60 Add to cart -
The art of happiness
€13.59 Add to cart -
Yitzhak Rabin
€14.40 Add to cart -
The power broker
€31.72 Add to cart -
Be Here Now
€16.99 Add to cart