How many of us have thumbed through Thom's Directory without giving a thought to the man who left us this extraordinary work of reference? Apparently, the 1904 edition was constantly at Joyce's side while he was writing Ulysses. The year before, Alexander Thom's widow, Sarah, bequeathed all 4,000 of her husband's books to the National Library of Ireland - one of that institution's most valuable collections.
Alexander Thom, founder of the famous directory, was born in Brevie on the east coast of Scotland just over 200 years ago, on April 18th 1801. His father, Walter, soon moved to Aberdeen and became a bookseller. He wrote a history of the city and his personal copy is today in the National Library of Ireland. Walter came to Dublin in 1813, at the invitation of the then Chief Secretary, Robert Peel, to edit the government subsidised evening paper, the Dublin Journal.
Change of government
While in his teens, Alexander came to assist his father and to learn printing and publishing. Peel retired in 1817 and passed the ownership of the Journal to Thom senior but, with the change of government, the paper's fortunes declined. His father died in 1824 and the following year Alex closed down the paper and moved the printing plant from Parliament Street to Mecklenburgh Street, where he restarted as a general printer.
Three years later he moved to North Earl Street and set himself up as a printer, stationer and bookseller. Business was slow, so he appealed to Sir Robert Peel in London for some recognition of his and his late father's losses sustained in support of government policy. Through Peel's influence the London Stationery Office awarded him a most valuable contract - for all post office printing in Ireland, including the Post Office Directory. Later he approached that enlightened Scotsman, Chief Secretary Thomas Drummond, and secured the printing of all future Royal Commissions in Ireland.
The firm of Alex Thom was now expanding so much that it moved to a four-storied premises in Middle Abbey Street. It was now the leading printing firm in Ireland. Alex's eldest daughter, Margaret, married Frederick Pilkington, the government book binder, whose business adjoined Thom's. In time the two firms merged and eventually became the Queen's Printing Office because Alex was appointed printer in Ireland to Queen Victoria.
According to a vignette of Alex in Progress in Irish Printing (Thom and Co, 1936), he took a personal interest in the most minute detail of the work in his factory. He inspected the work every day, "whistling happily as he went among those old gentlemen compositors of his". He had seven children by his first wife, Maria, who predeceased him. In the 1840s, the family lived at Carysfort Avenue Blackrock, Co Dublin. In the 1850s Alex bought Donny carney House on the north side of the city, which today is the home of Clontarf Golf Club.
Personal dream
By the 1840s Alexander Thom's financial situation was secure enough to enable him to realise a personal dream. He wished to compile his own Irish directory. Because of his enormous collection of books about Ireland, he had at his fingertips every possible source of information on the history, antiquities, statistics, literature, art, science, economics and social and political conditions of the country.
No expense was spared and in 1844 appeared Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, edited by Alex himself. The press hailed the work of more than 650 pages as "the most complete and valuable work of reference and miscellaneous information that has yet appeared in Ireland in the shape of an annual handbook incorporating considerable local statistics on Irish counties and towns".
The directory's success was immediate and with its editor's personal attention it quickly grew in size and prestige. But it never paid for itself in his own lifetime and was subsidised by his printing business. Nevertheless, its publication fulfilled a long cherished goal of its proprietor and provided the public with an invaluable reference work that has survived down to this day.
Thom was a wealthy man but a very private person who shunned publicity. His personal friends were all members of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. He was nominated for the presidency of the society in 1877 but declined the offer because of "pressure of work". However, it may well be that the real reason was that he dreaded the presentation of the address that he would have to make.
Mount Jerome
Alexander Thom died at his home in December 1879 and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin, almost in the shade of the Drummond monument. His funeral was attended by some of the most eminent people in Ireland.
During the 1916 Rising the premises of Thom and Co in Middle Abbey Street were completely destroyed by fire. Nothing survived, but in a remarkably short time the business was functioning again.
Certainly the patronage of Robert Peel assisted the Establishment of Thom's Direc- tory but the project would never have been realised without the extraordinary dedication and passion of its founder. His legacy to the people of Ireland ensures his place in Irish history and in this bicentenary year of his birth, he deserves to be remembered.