Alexander Thom (almanac editor)

On his father's death he obtained, through the influence of Sir Robert Peel, the contract for printing for the post office in Ireland.

[1] In 1844 Thom founded the work for which he is known, the Irish Almanac and Official Directory, which became a leader in its field.

[1] Thom supervised its publication for over 30 years, passing the copyright to his son-in-law Frederick Pilkington in 1876.

[4] In 1860 he published for free distribution A Collection of Tracts and Treatises illustrative of the Natural History, Antiquities, and the Political and Social State of Ireland, two volumes[5][6] which contain reprints of writers on Irish affairs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Included are works of James Ware, Edmund Spenser, Sir John Davies, William Petty, George Berkeley, and others such as Gerard Boate, Thomas Prior and Arthur Dobbs.