[JUDGING] O’Mahony’s Booksellers
Section: Rising Star Award
Organisation Name: O'Mahony's Booksellers
Rising Star Questions
Organisation Name
O'Mahony's Booksellers
Name Of Rising Star
Ruth McCarthy
Structure Of The Team And Their Roles
We have a small in house team that look after the social media for the bookshop that currently consists of Ruth, Lisa and Conor. Ruth looks after videos/reels for our socials.
How Are Your Measuring Success Reach Links Traffic Etc
Ruth has created reels with a whole host of authors such as Lucy Kennedy and Dermot Whelan as well as working with our own staff to film reels for book recommendations or special offers.
Ruth was accepted to take part in the RISE Booksellers Exchange, where she went to Canada to work as a bookseller there for 3 days.
Give Three Examples Of Recent Updates Or Initiatives That Have Worked Well Link To Them And Give Some Metrics On Them
1 Reel with Lucy Kennedy
Lucy visited our store in June 2026 and had no problem promoting her book with an inspired reel by Ruth.
Taking on the premise of Lucy's TV show 'Living with Lucy' so Ruth filmed Lucy coming into the shop to find her own book.
There are nearly 120k views on Instagram/facebook which led to plenty of comments and an increase in followers.
On tiktok there are over 2.3k views
The photos from this also have an additional 19k views
screenshot of the metrics attached.
2 Booksellers Current Reads Reel
This reel in March 2026 is a lovely example of Ruth including our staff in her work - but she includes herself as she wouldn't ask them to do something she wouldn't do herself of course!
It is at 6.4k views on tiktok
3 Lego Reel
Ruth and our staff got stuck into having a fun afternoon in May 2026 filming creative ways to show off our new Lego stock, although I'm still not sure why they all ended up with bags on her head it is still hilarious!
the reel has nearly 5k views on instagram/facebook and over 1k on tiktok
screenshot attached of the metrics
Why Are You Deserving Of Team Of The Year
Ruth has been working with us a number of years as both a Sales Assistant and Social Media Manager, she started as a part-timer and is currently working with us full time - and she's still only 21!
Ruth has great work ethic and is so much fun to work with - but if you don't believe me then just look at the reel she made about our new Lego stock - hilarious!! We were delighted that she was accepted on the RISE booksellers exchange and got the opportunity to travel to Canada (her first solo trip) to work in a bookshop over there and bring back fresh ideas.
The photo I've attached of Ruth is when she was reading in our shop window in April - as you can see she is willing to do anything for her job!
