There were 17 million visits to Irish public libraries in 2013 and the list of the ten most borrowed books for that year has just been published.
Strumpet City was the choice for One City, One Book in 2013, which prompted a revival of interest in James Plunkett's sprawling, often moving saga concerning events that took place in Dublin 100 years previously.
Strumpet City was first published in 1969. The novel - a best-seller in the 1970s in this country - had been nominated by libraries in Dublin, marking the centenary of the Lock-out, the serious industrial dispute which broke out between some 20,000 workers and 300 employers in 1913.
The ten most popular borrowings in 2013 were as follows:
1 Strumpet City by James Plunkett
2 The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
3 A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
4 City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
5 Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
6 The Racketeer by John Grisham
7 The Litigators by John Grisham
8 This Child of Mine by Sinead Moriarty
9 Inferno by Dan Brown
10 The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes
