OnTheTown: Family, friends and media colleagues gathered in Bank of Ireland's House of Lords on Dublin's College Green this week for the launch of former Irish Times editor Conor Brady's new book, Up with the Times, a reflection on his time as editor from 1986 to 2002.
Former SDLP leader John Hume congratulated Brady on producing an "outstanding book" which, he said, is not just an account of his editorship but also an account of a very important time in Ireland's history. In particular, he praised Brady's detailed reflections on events in the North.
Brady said the book was also a celebration of an era.
"A newspaper is a living thing - it goes from one cycle to another," he explained.
Publisher Michael Gill, who officially retired two weeks ago, ending the five-generation association of the Gill family with the publishing company, said that the book would have a "lasting effect".
"One of Gill & Macmillan's missions is to publish history, and a primary source of history is the newspaper," he said. "So when you find an editor of a newspaper, the newspaper of record, agreeing to write a memoir, you are sure to have an important document."
Attending the book launch on Tuesday with his wife, Zhanna, was Conor O'Clery, former North America editor of The Irish Times, who has just retired and is now concentrating on a number of book projects. He said Conor Brady had helped The Irish Times make a "psychological leap" from being a newspaper with a provincial outlook to one that saw the value of having its own correspondents around the world.
"Conor Brady sent me to Moscow - one of the greatest adventures of my life," O'Clery said.
RTÉ broadcaster Rodney Rice said that although he entered the trade a short time before Conor Brady, the book had brought back all sorts of memories.
"It brings you back and makes you run things back in your head," he mused.
Among those who attended the launch were Conor Brady's wife, Ann, and sons Neil and Conor; John Hume's wife, Pat Hume; Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy; chief executive of the Bank of Ireland Brian Goggin (who also spoke at the event); broadcaster Marian Finucane and Senator Mary O'Rourke.
Up With the Times is published by Gill & Macmillan, €24.99