Ireland celebrates Christmas 1919

Dublin, 27 December 1919 - It’s been a good Christmas for traders in Dublin City.

Business of every kind was up and in many cases it exceeded that of the pre-war years.

Many shops were cleared of provisions by Christmas Eve and poultry shops were unable to meet the demand for turkeys and chickens in particular. Long queues of customers were formed in many shops, despite the relatively high prices that prevailed.

‘We have seldom had such a rush of Christmas trade’, the manager of a well-known Grafton Street drapery store told journalists.

It has also been a busy period for the mail service. The number of parcels handled by the Dublin Post Office was much greater this year than in 1918, with notably more packets containing gifts than last year. An extra 800 staff were employed for the purposes of managing the load. The number of parcels delivered in the Dublin area rose from 75,894 in 1918, to 85,710 this year. There was also a 50% increase in the number of registered packets delivered in Dublin over the course of Christmas week. An estimated 700,000 items of correspondence and 20,000 money orders were received from friends and relatives in America over the Christmas period.

But it was not only letters and parcels that were arriving in Dublin. On Christmas Eve, incoming steamships brought large numbers of soldiers, sailors, harvesters and business people, returning back to Ireland for the holidays.

As always, Christmas Day was dominated by religious services, including a 6am High Mass at the Pro-Cathedral which held masses every half hour from 7am to midday. Services were also held throughout the day in Christ Church Cathedral which also hosted a Christmas Eve carol service.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]