Honest Abe wouldn't have been impressed by the failure of a Clare County Library member to return a book on the former US President three decades after they first borrowed it.
A copy of Makers of History; Abraham Lincoln by Herbert Agar, which was first published by Collins in 1965, was loaned out by the Clare County Council library service in 1987 but has only just been returned.
A volunteer from a local charity shop returned the book to Shannon Library after identifying it as library property when going through a pile of donated items. The maximum fine imposed by Clare County Library for an overdue book is €7.50.
Catherine Griffin, Assistant Librarian at Shannon Library, took receipt of the wayward book herself and she told RTÉ Entertainment, "People often come across old library books when they're clearing out attics and things like that and we were very happy to get this one back. It is such a lovely book and it will be loaned out a lot more now."
The library has a fine of 10c a day for the late return of books but that's capped at €7.50 so borrowers are not deterred from making very late returns or, indeed, using public libraries in the first place.
However, the Lincoln book is far from being the most overdue in library history. In 2010 The New York Society Library finally saw the return of The Law of Nations by Emmerich De Vattel, a full 221 years after it was first borrowed by another US President - George Washington.
Washington took loan of the legal manifesto from the historic library shortly into his first term and the book remained stowed away at Mount Vernon, his Virginia home, for over two centuries.
The book was finally returned to its rightful place when Mount Vernon staff sent it back in 2010. They also dodged a whopping $300,000 late fee.
