There is a particular quality of silence that descends when you are properly inside a book. Not the silence of absence, but something more active, a closing-off of the noise of the world, a narrowing of attention to the page. Today is Ireland Reads Day, and the backdrop against which it takes place is worrying. A Children’s Books Ireland report has found plummeting rates of reading enjoyment among Irish children and teenagers. Only 9 per cent of Irish adults possess the ability to evaluate long, complex texts, a figure three points below the OECD average.

Source: The Irish Times February 28, 2026 06:32 UTC