Tributes paid on death of Fergal Tobin, ‘captain of the Irish book trade’

Tributes have been paid to the publisher and author Fergal Tobin who has died.

Mr Tobin was born in Dublin and educated at UCD where he graduated in history and English.

He joined Gill & Macmillan in August 1977 as an editorial assistant. Within seven years he was made commissioning editor. He became publishing director in 2000 until his retirement in 2013. After that he took a role as a freelance publisher helping to publish books from The Irish Times archives.

Over the course of his career, he published books by a distinguished list of authors such as David McCullough, Mary O’Rourke, Tom Garvin, John Horgan, Fintan O’Toole and Jimmy Magee.

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He introduced cookery writers Catherine Fulvio and Dr Eva Orsmond to an Irish audience and published books that had a profound impact on Irish society, such as Smack by Irish Times journalists Padraig Yeates and Sean Flynn, Sophia’s Story by Susan McKay and The Pope’s Children by David McWilliams.

His publishing in 2003 of The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, edited by Brian Lalor, was a high point in his career, marshalling as it did, 16 contributing editors, with 950 authors contributing more than 5,000 individual articles and 700 illustrations.

Gill chairman Michael Gill said Mr Tobin had demonstrated “outstanding editorial ability and began to commission in a wide range of subject areas.

“While history was his personal passion, he was equally adept in finding authors for current affairs, politics, biography, and even sport. He published many books of reference such as Boylan’s Dictionary of Irish Biography, and Dolan’s Dictionary of Hiberno-English.

“He was also particularly committed to promoting authors from Northern Ireland such as Paul Bew, Jonathan Bardon and Thomas Hennessy.

“Fergal was a gifted publishing all-rounder, as happy editing an author’s script, as he was lobbying in Brussels on copyright and other matters with the Federation of European Publishers.”

Fergal was an author in his own right. His Best of Decades: Ireland in the 1960′s was published in 1984. His final book, The Irish Difference, in 2022 was a distillation of much of the reading and writing he did on Irish history and examines how Ireland took an independent direction in comparison with Scotland or Wales.

He also published many popular history and reference books under the pseudonym Richard Killeen.

Mr Tobin became president of the Federation of European Publishers in 2012. Federation director Anne Bergman said Mr Tobin had been a really effective lobbyist in explaining to politicians what publishers do.

“Fergal was loved by everyone, for his expertise, his willingness to share it, his friendship and his social skills,” she said.

Lilliput Press publisher Antony Farrell described Mr Tobin as the “captain of the Irish book trade - salutations Fergal: you may have weighed anchor but you have left a formidable flotilla in your wake”.

Mr Tobin died on Tuesday in Beaumont Hospital. He is survived by his wife Catherine, children Louisa, Isobel, Richard and Cillian, sons-in-law and grandchildren.

His funeral took place on Friday morning at St John’s Church of Ireland in Seafield Road West in Clontarf, Co Dublin followed by cremation at Glasnevin Cemetery.