Sheila O’Flanagan: Libraries are medicine for the soul – and I can think of no public service that has adapted so well to a changing world

On National Public Libraries Open Day, author speaks about the joy of reading and finding ‘medicine for the soul’

Sheila O'Flanagan

Over the doorway to the ancient Egyptian library at Thebes is the memorable inscription “Medicine for the Soul”.

When I joined the children’s library in Walkinstown, Dublin, over 3,000 years later, I truly did feel that my soul had been nourished.

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