By Tommy Graham
Martin Mansergh was, and will remain, an important if understated figure on the national and, indeed, international stage; his achievements in those spheres, particularly with regard to the Northern Ireland Peace Process, will be documented elsewhere and will surely outlast him.
I first met Martin in the summer of 2004 when I interviewed him for the magazine (https://historyireland.com/in-the-service-of-the-state/). Before we started, I checked on the correct pronunciation of his name. ‘It’s Mansergh’, he replied, ‘… rhymes with panzer’, followed by his trademark guffaw. I was to hear it many times over the following years, as Martin became a loyal friend and supporter of History Ireland. He was a long-term subscriber and joined our management board with a number of others at a time when we were in need of wise heads and intellectual counsel. We were honoured to have a person of his stature involved in the company, and if our management meetings occasionally took on the character of a history seminar they were all the better for that. He was also a regular book reviewer and Hedge School panellist, including in the muddy fields of the Electric Picnic, where, Tipperary farmer that he was, he was entirely at home and where his boyish enthusiasm chimed with the youthful audience. I recall in particular our Hedge School at the 2015 Electric Picnic, the year of the TV mini-series Charlie, when he had the difficult task of batting for his former boss. He more than held his own. And so, ten years later, when I invited him to join another Electric Picnic Hedge School panel to discuss the legacy of another out-of-fashion Fianna Fáil leader, Éamon de Valera, I was pleasantly surprised when Martin, at 78, accepted (https://historyireland.com/hedge-schools/). He was in great form, and I heard that distinctive laugh again. Consequently, it was with great shock and sadness that we learnt of his recent sudden passing.
Ní fheicimid a leithéid arís.
Tommy Graham is editor of History Ireland.