Five Irish-language authors who received €74,000 in total from the Arts Council last year have sold only 76 books between them since 1998 — 70 of which were sold by just one of the writers.

According to official industry data, Padraig Standun, who received a bursary of €10,000, accounted for the lion’s share of the sales, while Darach O Scolai, who was awarded €30,000 in grants over two years, clocked up six. This means that Padraig O Gallachoir, who was granted €20,000 over two years, Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh, who got €9,000, and Aifric Mac Aodha, who received €5,000, all appeared not to sell any books. However, Nielsen BookScan, which monitors book sales and claims 90% accuracy, said that works by Standun, O Scolai and the three other authors could have been sold at independent bookshops or in such small quantities that they did not register with it. Alan Hayes, president of Publishing Ireland, an umbrella group for publishers, has said there is more funding for Irish-language literature than for English-language books.

He said that with all the support available to Irish-language authors and publishers, including €1.5m every year from Foras na Gaeilge, the governing body of the Irish language, it was “logical” that books should be written and published but that it is difficult to sell them. “Selling is the hardest part, trying to get them into bookshops,” said Hayes. “The reality is the bookshops have bills to pay and it’s hard to give the space on a shelf to a book that might sell a couple a year when Cecelia Ahern will sell a couple of thousand.” Hayes said the Nielsen BookScan tallies were misleading because so many Irish language books are sold in independent bookshops, newsagents and small gift shops. Sarah Bannan, head of literature at the Arts Council, defended its funding policy. She said that while English-language publishing in Ireland faced challenges, there were more for Irish-language publishing. “Audiences are on our mind at the moment. How can we get Irish-language literature to meet more people?” she said. “We’re looking at literary writing. The language question isn’t our main concern. It’s about the quality of the work; the art form. Other organisations have the mandate to deal with promoting the language.”

The Arts Council provided three times more funding for literature in English than Irish last year but it was easier for Irish-language authors to make successful applications; five out of 11 were successful. Publishing Ireland estimates there are 200 to 300 authors writing in the Irish language. O Scolai, who won the 2007 Oireachtas prize for An Cleireach (The Clerk) and co-founded Leabhar Breac publishing house, said that Arts Council funding was not measured in terms of audiences but artistic excellence. “It allows artists to buy time. That applies to English language authors, painters, sculptors and all artists,” he said. “It’s no different from the bursaries received by composers or visual artists and neither of those would be measured in terms of audience numbers.” O Scolai said it was not worth a small publisher’s time dealing with Nielsen and that while the sales figures were slight, they reflected the size of the Irish-language population. Nielsen ranks Dibirt de, Standun’s latest novel, as the highest-selling work by any of the five writers. It has registered 30 sales, valued at €360, since its publication in November 2007.

The 76 book sales tracked by Nielsen had a total value of €897.39. AIS, a group for Irishlanguage publishers, did not have additional sales figures. Andrew Waters, a book buyer at Hughes and Hughes, said there was some demand for Irish-language books at its Galway store but little elsewhere. “We stock very few Irish-language books in Dublin. There are people who say bookshops should have them, but unfortunately they don’t sell,” he said. The Arts Council provided €2,500 of travel and training awards to three better-known Irish-language authors. Gabriel Rosenstock, a bestselling writer, received €400 and Nuala Ni Chonchuir was awarded €900. Nielsen BookScan tracked sales of more than 500 books for Rosenstock.

The Sunday Times - Eithne Shortall
04 Deireadh Fómhair 2009

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