War responsible for publishing decline

Dublin, 30 December 1914 - The decline in the number of published books this year was a direct consequence of the outbreak of the war.

The number of books published in 1914 fell to 10,695 from a total of 11,537 in 1913. For the first seven months of the year, however, the number of publications was greater than ever previously recorded, but the outbreak of war brought a sudden and disastrous slump.

August and September were particularly poor in terms of publishing. There was some recovery in October and November, but not enough to salvage the year.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]