Irelands Read campaign

The Department have been involved in the ‘Ireland Reads’ Campaign. This is a new campaign to get the whole country reading in the lead up to a national day of reading on Thursday, February 25th.

Campaign Objective
We want people to pledge to set aside time to ‘squeeze in a read’ on the 25th of February, Ireland Reads day, to escape from the pressures of the world for a bit with a good read. It can be a book, a newspaper, a comic – whatever works for you! In the three weeks before the 25th we will promote the campaign everywhere we can and try to get everyone talking about it.

All over the country, libraries and partners will be holding events and activities in support of Ireland Reads. Unfortunately, Level 5 restrictions mean that libraries and bookshops will be closed during February, so this campaign will be focused on online activities, and connecting people with digital library resources such as eBooks and eAudiobooks. We are increasing the amount of material available to library users via the Borrowbox app during February. We also want to create traffic to Irish booksellers, so people can order the titles they want through booksellers’ websites.
Ireland Reads website

A new website www.irelandreads.ie was launched on Thursday 4th February 2021.

The website is the hub for the campaign, and contains three important elements for success:

• We are urging people to sign up to the campaign and pledge the amount of minutes they will read for on the 25th. A cumulative total will be displayed.
• Find your perfect book. Users can choose how long they would like to read for each day, what their favourite type of book is and the website will recommend the perfect read – and tell them how long it will take to complete. There are more than 800 book recommendations across multiple genres, all selected by Ireland’s library staff. Think of it as a couch to 5K app for the reading habit!
Once they’ve found a book, visitors can link through to library websites or to Irish booksellers to track it down.

Campaign as Gaelige

Promotional social media materials for Ireland Reads will be available in both English and Irish, and we strongly encourage the promotion of the campaign in both languages.

Campaign National Events

In the week of beginning the 22nd February there will be three national events:

1. Ireland Reads: Why Read? Wednesday 24th February (Time TBC)
• The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) will lead a look at the science behind the benefits of reading, with input from researchers, writers and readers speaking to the wellbeing aspect of reading for pleasure
2. Ireland Reads: The Great Escape! Thursday 25th February (Time TBC)
• Libraries Ireland present a discussion focusing on reading during lockdown and how books have helped us escape, chaired by Rick O’Shea (RTE).
3. Éire ag Léamh (Date and Time TBC)
• An Irish language event hosted by Childrens Books Ireland and chaired by Aine Ní Ghlinn, Laureate na nÓg.

Further details on all three events will be posted to the Events section of the website.

Libraries will also be organising events all around the country.