Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Jim Stewart and Professor Justin O’Brien for help and advice with parts of this work, though neither of them is responsible for my use of those gifts. I am also grateful to Geraldine Kennedy, editor of the Irish Times, and her predecessor Conor Brady, for allowing me to express many of the ideas that are developed here, even when they were badly out of kilter with the mood of the times. Paddy Smyth and later Peter Murtagh on the opinion pages have been particularly patient and supportive.

This book would not have been undertaken without Neil Belton’s support and perhaps misplaced optimism, and would not have been possible without Charles Boyle’s acute work on the text. I am also grateful for the work of my agent Derek Johns.

My debt to Clare Connell is, as always, both incalculable and inexpressible.