What should we do with old telephone boxes?

THE IDEA OF a book exchange is not a new idea in Ireland.

There are 3,387 ‘Bookcrossers’ in Ireland – these are members of the book sharing site Bookcrossing.com, which allows people to leave a book in a public place to be picked up by others.

The idea is that you leave a label with a code in the book and an instruction to the person who picks it up to log on to bookcrossing.com when they are finished and say where they found it… before leaving it down in another public place for another person to pick up and read.

Now book sharers in Britain have gone an extra step, by converting disused phone boxes into mini libraries. Users of Booklending.com have descended on several villages in the UK and turned the red kiosks into places to borrow books.

But could the idea take off in Ireland?

In 2009, Eircom dismantled half the phone kiosks in the country. A short documentary called Bye Bye Now chronicled the disappearance of so many of these booths, discovering that most of them ended up in a number of scrapyards.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they were kept in place and put to some other good use…

What should we do with old telephone boxes?

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Bunratty, Co Clare
Photo: kthypryn flickr/CreativeCommons
Ballina, Co Tipperary
Photo: felix o Flickr/CreativeCommons This photo from 1989 shows a phone box painted in the unusual colours of green and white to match the butcher's shop.
Dawson Street, Dublin
Installed in 1925, this type K1 phone box is believed to be the first in Ireland. There is another in Foxrock Village, Dublin.
Enniskerry, Co Wicklow
Photo: William Murphy Flickr/CreativeCommons Classic example of Irish written in the old script in Co Wicklow. When Irish was first printed in the 16th century it copies the handwritten scripts of the time. This 'seanchló' font was used as late as the 1960s, before being replaced with the latin alphabet.
Mulrany, Co Mayo
Photo: Felix O Flickr/CreativeCommons With Croagh Patrick in the background, this photo from August 1994 brings back memories of those great Irish summers we all really believe actually existed at one stage or another.
New Quay, Co Clare
Photo: Mark Waters Flickr/CreativeCommons The kiosk is in disrepair but the phone itself is still working.
Roundwood, Co Wicklow
Photo Photocall Ireland Oops, a hunk in a box. Could you exchange that for a book? Doubt it. Irish actor Pierce Brosnan in a old wodden style telephone Kiosk on the set of "The Nephew" being filmed in Roundwood Co Wicklow in 1996.
Portmagee, Co Kerry
Photo: sludgegulper Flickr/CreativeCommons The village street and concrete telephone box. In the background the bridge between the mainland and Valentia Island, famous resort of sea anglers.

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