Ireland’s number one title this Christmas was The Battle by Paul O’Connell, which sold 17,841 copies in the seven days to December 24th through Nielsen BookScan’s Irish Consumer Market.
The Irish rugby international’s autobiography, which also won the Irish Sports Book of the Year Award, narrowly pipped Holding, the debut novel by Graham Norton, which sold a remarkable 13,890 copies, more than 9,000 copies more than its nearest fiction rival, Game of Throw-ins by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, which sold 4,506 copies. Holding has been this year’s big Irish fiction success story, proving significantly more popular in Ireland than Britain despite Norton’s huge media profile there.
Last year’s Irish Christmas number one was David Walliams’s Grandpa’s Great Escape. The popular children's author came third this year, selling 9,143 copies of The Midnight Gang. Bruce Springsteen's autobiography Born to Run was not far behnd, selling 8,893 copies.
It was also a good Christmas for Irish authors Cecelia Ahern, whose novel Lyrebird sold 4,425 copies; Sebastian Barry (Days Withpout End, 3,217); Emma Donoghue (The Wonder, 2,696); and Cathy Kelly (Scenes from a Happy Marriage, 2,576).
John Kavanagh's MMA book, Win or Learn, toped the paperback non-fiction chart with 3,073 sales, pipping Waterford Whispers News by Colm Williamson and Talking to Strangers by Michael Harding. Then There Was Light:Stories from Ireland's Rural Electrification was a surprise hit, selling 2,069 copies.
John and Fatti Burke's Historopedia sold 3,455 copies, and Pigin of Howth by Kathleen Watkins and Margaret Anne Suggs also made the children's top 10 with 1,545 sales.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling was the top-selling title of the year, with 69,653 copies in total to date. The book sold more than 35,000 copies in its first week, which alone would have placed it fifth overall for the year. Last year, Paula Hawkins’ psychological thriller The Girl on the Train topped the charts, selling 60,476 copies.
The Irish Christmas top 10 bestselling titles were:
1. The Battle by Paul O’Connell (17,841)
2. Holding by Graham Norton (13,890)
4. The Midnight Gang by David Walliams (9,143)
4. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen (8,893)
5. Guinness World Records:2017 (5,836)
6. Double Down: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (5,302)
7. Pippa by Pippa O’Connor (4,580)
8. Game of Throw-ins by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (4,506)
9. Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern (4,415)
10.What Do You Think of That? by Kieran Donaghy (3,978)
