THE Collins Press is one of the quiet success stories of Irish publishing Mr Pat Falvey is one of the greatest success stories of Irish climbing. The connection is that Mr Con Collins of the Cork publishing house and Mr Falvey have climbed together. Both have a story to tell.
The Collins Press, based at Carey's Lane, in the Huguenot quarter of Cork, is a book store which has joined the growing band of small publishers. Con Collins and Pat Falvey, ex-millionaire turned adventurer, are friends and have shared remarkable climbing escapades.
Now, the Collins Press is to publish the story of Mr Falvey's quest to achieve what has only been achieved by 36 people in the world. He climbed the seven peaks regarded by climbers as the ones to be conquered if you have a serious interest in such pastimes. Mr Collins joined him on two of those expeditions.
The Collins Press began publishing with a portfolio concerning mainly Cork themes. In 1989 it published a Cork Diary, partly to attract the spotlight to the Carey's Lane premises. That year, it published two titles, tentatively entering a business that is not without its difficulties.
Then, in January of last year the Mercier Press in Cork moved the bulk of its publishing operation to Dublin, leaving the Collins Press with access to a gap in the market. Ms Maria O'Donovan, formerly of Mercier, joined the company as editor.
In 1996, the Collins Press published seven titles. This year there will be 15. Most of the publications are commissioned works such as Ireland - Our Island Home - published in March of this year at Pounds 19.99. The book is a beautiful pictorial record of the Irish coastline and has become the first bestseller on the Collins Press lists.
For a small publishing house, that was a breakthrough.
Aimed at the tourist/tourist/Christmas/home market, the book reflects the work of an accomplished photographer, Mr Kevin Dwyer, of the family synonymous with the now defunct Sunbeam plant in Cork.
When the plant closed, he had to reinvent himself, and he has done so by giving Con Collins his first bestseller.
While commissioned works form the bulk of the Collins Press output, the house has started to publish fiction as well as a more broadly-based portfolio.
The house has given a break to new writers like Gerard Murphy from Cork, who is now on the bookshelves with his novel - Once in a Blue Moon; the Dublin writer, Pauline Bracken, who has written Indian Summer; Paul A. Roberts, also from Dublin, whose The Rasherhouse, is a promising first effort; and Breda Spaight, from Limerick, who joins the Collins Press list with her first novel, God on the Wall.
They are the new hopefuls in a most difficult field, says Mr Collins. But he is looking ahead to his next bestseller. That will come, he believes, in the form of Reach For The Sky, Pat Falvey's autobiography. Mr Falvey is an extraordinary climber who has an unparalleled will to succeed.
In his frank account of his life, he discusses the events that brought him from great wealth to none, his reading problems, and, most crucially, his travails on the mountains.
Anyone with an interest in the outdoor life - walkers, climbers and the like, will want to read his story. It is one of personal triumph on two fronts. He was the first person from the Republic to climb Everest and the first Irish person to tackle and conquer the seven peaks from Tibet to Australia, regarded by the climbing fraternity as the most important climbs in the world.
Having seen a rough draft of the book, I can assure you it will make interesting reading.