John Keohane came to Sligo from Cork to set up a bookshop over 50 years ago. His shop, now run by his son Michael, is a landmark in the town.
But as well as selling books he has spent a lifetime buying them, and over the years built up an important collection.
This includes some books published by the Yeats family press, Cuala Press, Yeats's first editions, and Irish books, including some in Latin, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. "One of them belonged to the Archbishop of Cashel," he told The Irish Times.
Not only did he buy books, but customers brought them in to him, along with the occasional manuscript. One of these is an unpublished poem by Robert Graves, on the occasion of his visit to Sligo.
This little-known event arose, according to Mr Keohane, from a complex set of personal relationships involving the English poet and a local solicitor and lover of the arts, Geoffrey Phibbs, who had an affair with Graves's wife and, possibly, his close woman friend as well.
It is surmised that Graves visited Sligo in an unsuccessful attempt to meet Phibbs.
Mr Keohane has now presented his collection to the library of the Sligo Institute of Technology. He and his son Michael felt it was preferable to do it while he was alive than after he died, and a ceremony was planned to mark the hand-over. Sadly, however, Mr Keohane was in hospital recovering from a stroke on the day.
He has made a good recovery, but his sight has been affected and this has cost him his favourite hobby, reading.