It is the longest established independent publishing house in Ireland.
[3] The company was founded in 1944 by Seán Feehan and initially published religious books.
In 1946 they published This Tremendous Lover by Dom Eugene Boylan, which sold over a million copies.
In the 1960s they launched a successful range of paperbacks on Irish literature, culture, religion and history.
The artist John Skelton (1925–2009) was Mercier's main cover designer – he worked as an art director and book illustrator before concentrating full-time on painting in 1975.