Retirement & Appointment at Messenger Publications
Cecilia West (centre) with Brendan McCarthy, who takes over as Manager of Publishing Services and Elizabeth Foley, administrative Team Leader at her retirement presentation at the Messenger Publications office.
Cecilia West, Director at Messenger Publications, retired on 31 January 2025, completing a long and illustrious career in publishing spanning over forty years. Cecilia has worked with several publishing houses in Ireland and the UK including Andre Deutsch, Veritas Publications, Wolfhound Press, The Columba Press and Messenger Publications. She was a member of the Board of Publishing Ireland for four years.
Cecilia has been at the helm of Messenger Publications for over eleven years, guiding our magazine production and developing and expanding our book publishing enterprise. Through her directorship, networking and negotiation skills, industry knowledge and experience, and supportive leadership Messenger Publications is today a major publisher of books on Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit studies, care for the earth, scripture, social justice, prayer and pastoral resources. We wish Cecilia well as she embarks on new ventures and avenues in her retirement.
Stepping into the role of Team Leader of Publishing Services with Messenger Publications, Brendan McCarthy is relishing the challenge.
Brendan worked as a designer for Irish Tatler Publications and Smurfit Communications before establishing Cobalt Design, which specialised in contract publishing for Aer Lingus, AIB Financial Services, The Sunday Tribune, Business & Finance and The International Rugby Board. He then founded BMCDesign, providing project management, publishing, digital media and graphic design services for a number of blue chip companies. He also provides part-time consultancy services to Fairtrade Ireland and Asia Matters, a government think tank. Brendan joined Messenger Publications in 2018 and as Art Director since 2022 manages all book, magazine and digital media projects. In his expanded role with Messenger Publications, Brendan will head up publishing services and oversee all design, print and production work. We look forward to working on new projects as well as continuing to liaise with our authors, promoters, subscribers, contractors and suppliers under Brendan’s leadership.
