Extract

Brian Langan

Publishing

The Celtic Tiger years marked a period of transition for the publishing industry in Ireland. Through the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, there had been a gradual shift from a relatively traditional, indigenous focus to a more progressive and outward-looking stance that saw Irish writing as a force for change, reflecting the opening of the economy itself.

From the mid-1990s, there was a consolidation of long-established Irish publishers such as Gill & Macmillan and Mercier Press, combined with the fresh approach of relative newcomers such as Lilliput, The O’Brien Press, Poolbeg and New Island. When the economy began to take off, many of these publishers started to push out the boundaries of what Irish publishing could do. For instance, Poolbeg Press was instrumental in driving the 1990s boom in ‘commercial women’s fiction’, exemplified by writers such as Maeve Binchy, Patricia Scanlan, Sheila O’Flanagan, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly and Cecilia Ahern.

UK publishers had long held an interest in Irish writers, and in the 2000s three of the biggest global publishers set up publishing offices in Ireland, with Penguin Ireland and Hodder Headline Ireland (later Hachette Ireland) both established in 2002, and Transworld Ireland founded in 2008.

These ‘Anglos’, as they became known, quickly established a strong sense of competition that had, arguably, been lacking among Irish publishers. Most indigenous publishers rose to the challenge. For instance, Gill Books, having rebranded after a management buyout at Gill &...