IRISH book retailer Hughes & Hughes claims the closure of two of its shops at Heathrow Airport will prove detrimental to Irish writing.

The famous shop, which has become a familiar sight at airports for Irish travelers over the years, will close both its units at the London airport at the end of this month after losing the contract to WH Smith. They have also closed in Shannon Airport after WH Smith also took over that contract.

The company, who had established a management structure in the UK with a view to expanding operations there, says the development has come as a shock and that it has the potential to damage Irish writers.

Hughes & Hughes has prided itself on supporting Irish names while also offering a more substantial range of books than their competitors.

"In my view, it could be to the detriment of Irish authors or Irish books because they [WH Smith] are not big buyers of Irish books," managing director Tony McEntee told the Sunday Tribune.

"The one thing about the Irish people is that they love their books and they support their authors. While it's all very well if you are Maeve Binchy and you are very well known, how do these [authors] get a breakthrough if, like Smiths, you only deal with the top 150 fiction books or the top 20 business books? That is what they do."

Hughes & Hughes, who still have an outlet at London City Airport, sponsor the annual Irish Novel of the Year Award, while its founder Derek Hughes was influential in the establishment of the Irish Book Awards.

But it was not the only book dealer to be critical of the WH Smith's monopoly deal with those airports controlled by the British Airport Authority (BAA).

Other retailers criticised the move which has been described as "one monopoly giving another monopoly" when WH Smith undertake a phased handover of all 10 book stores in Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports from the beginning of next month.