Gill (Publisher)

Gill is a leading independent publisher and distributor based in Dublin, Ireland. Its publishing activities encompass a wide range of subjects and topics and its name is synonymous with books and publishing in Ireland. Throughout its long history, the company has remained committed to delivering outstanding content for learning and life. Gill is the publisher of many titles that will be familiar to anyone educated in an Irish classroom, including Inis Dom, New Complete Geography and Soundings, as well as popular bestsellers such as The Pope’s Children and Irelandopedia.

History

Books and printing have been in the blood stream of the Gill family since 1827 when Michael Henry Gill was apprenticed as a printer at Trinity College Dublin. The first venture into publishing took place in 1856 when Gill bought the stock and assets of James McGlashan, a Scottish publisher who was well known in Dublin’s literary and academic circles. The company was called McGlashan & Gill.

By 1875 the company was known as M.H.Gill & Son and was well established in a premises in Upper Sackville St, now O’Connell Street. Bookselling had now been added to the enterprise; Gill’s bookshop features on two occasions in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

M.H.Gill’s son was Henry J., a scholar, linguist, Member of Parliament at Westminster, alderman of Dublin and an astute businessman. Two of his sons followed him into the company, one developed the printing side; the other publishing and bookselling.

A fourth generation, William, directed and managed the business for almost forty years and oversaw its gradual and planned transformation by divesting from printing in the mid- 1960s and from bookselling in the mid-1970s. William’s son Michael joined the firm in 1963, after working for some years in London, Paris and New York. He began an energetic development of publishing. A partnership with the London publishers, Macmillan, was formed in 1968 and Gill & Macmillan soon became a household name in schools, colleges and homes throughout Ireland.

In 2013, Michael Gill’s daughter, Ruth Gill became the sixth generation of the family to join the firm after twelve years working in business consulting and publishing in London and New York and time spent as a graduate student at Oxford University.

In 2016, the name of the company reverted to Gill after the partnership with Macmillan ended amicably after almost fifty years of successful publishing. Throughout its 160-year history the Gill family enterprise has changed names on several occasions, diversified from printing into publishing and bookselling, then exited from printing and bookselling.

Divisions

Gill is divided into three separate businesses, Gill Books, Gill Education and Gill Distribution. It is unique among Irish publishers in serving every part of the market, from primary schools to books and resources that educate, inform and entertain people of all ages, from the very first books they learn to read right through to adulthood.

Gill Education is the educational division of Gill.

Our name has been associated quality educational content since Michael Henry Gill started publishing back in 1856. The Gill commitment to Irish education remains to this day. Working closely with our authors and teachers, we have published some of the best-known textbooks in the Irish market, and continue to aim for excellence in the development and production of books and resources, tailored to student and teacher need. We also supply Irish schools with a carefully selected range of the most respected literacy and numeracy resources available worldwide.

Website: www.gilleducation.ie Twitter: @GillEducation

Gill Books publish outstanding non-fiction in biography, cookery, history, current affairs, MBS, gift books, reference and lifestyle. They also recently starting publishing in the children’s and young adult market. Its substantial list of successful authors includes Darina Allen, Susan Jane White, Matt Cooper, Richard Aldous, Jim McGuinness, Neven Maguire, Noël Browne, Gay Byrne and Mary O’Rourke. Significant publications include Strumpet City, Soundings, The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, The Pope’s Children, Chapter One and the recent phenomenal bestseller Irelandopedia. Its origins date back to 1856 when MH Gill & Son, whose portfolio included printing and bookselling, was founded in Dublin. Since then, Gill has partnered with other companies, including, most recently, Macmillan of London. The bookshop, which stood on Dublin’s O’Connell Street for 123 years and is referenced in James Joyce’s Ulysses, can now be found online at www.gillbooks.i.e.

Website: www.gillbooks.ie Twitter: @Gill_Books

Gill Distribution – Ireland’s largest distributor of books for publishers. Servicing over 50 publishers with a wide range of services, including physical distribution, sales representation, ONIX distribution and sales reporting. Clients include Bloomsbury Professional, Cork University Press, Collins Press, Lilliput Press and The O’Brien Press.

Website: www.gilldistribution.ie