Dedicated to the memory of Rose O’Connell
Acknowledgments
To Mam and Dad for keeping the faith.
Óran for being all any father could ask for in a son.
Sophie for love and friendship.
Damien, Sinead and Aoife for putting up with me during the ‘lost’ years.
John ‘Granda’ O’Connell and Peg O’Donnell for paving the family way.
Mannix Berry for opening the door all those years back.
Fergal Tobin for his belief from the outset, constant encouragement and professionalism.
John Leahy for a huge amount of time and support. Fellow salesman Aidan Mulcahy, Brian Carey, Faith O’Grady for her valuable advice and support, Gordon Deegan, Nick Kennedy for the poetic eye, Therese Tierney for calling up, Ray Scannell for friendship and an appreciation of fine cake, Shane Hegarty for swapping notes, Miriam Donohoe for all her support, Shane Malone for encouragement and solid advice, Rachel Andrews for notes, Fintan O’Toole, Caroline Walsh, Barry O’Keeffe, Conor Goodman, Carmel Daly, Hugh Linehan, and all at the Irish Times for guidance, advice and an income, John and Christina Kelly, Eoin Ó Cathain, Theresa and Caroline Cavanagh, Rosaleen Quinlan, Richard Fitzpatrick, Fawn Allen for sharing some of the journey, Dr Chris Luke, Tony McCarthy and all at Forefront, Tom Donnelly, Ryan Tubridy and all at the ‘Tubridy Show’, Colm Moore and 96 FM, Cianna Campbell, Joe and Grace Carey, Eileen Sweeney, the Fahy family, Neil Pearson, Mary Bohan, Denis O’Connell, Ciara Dwyer, Thomas Power, Fiona Kearney, Fergal and all at The Cornerhouse Bar in Cork, John Kennedy, Liam Heylin, Danny Maher, Pat Keogh and family, Joe and Mary O’Connell and family, Jim O’Dowd and family, the Hehir family, Christy McNamara, Ann Sweeney, Una and Diarmuid Clarke, Madeline Johnston, Sara Keating, Steve, Trevor, Shay Howe, Eoin Vaughan, Professor Joe Barry, Colette Sheridan, Dr Stanton Peele, Ronan Farren, Barry O’Sullivan, Gerry Collison for taking a punt on me, Cilla Kotey, Dr Bhamjee, Dr Alex Michel and Niamh, Geraldine Hartnett and all at the Aislinn Centre, Frances Black, Robbie Breen, Deirdre Rennison Kunz, Nicki Howard, Neil Ryan, Esther Kallen, Mark Nixon, Teresa Daly, Mary Coughlan, Declan Doherty, Mike Darcy, Eibhlin Roche and the Guinness Archives, Eoin Fahy, Will O’Connell, Cork City Library, Knud Hedeager Nielsen, Gerard and Marie and family, Jean Doyle, John Egan, Dr Brian Girvin, Dr Mary Tilki, John Doocey, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Lorraine O’Connell, The Shannon Bar, Danish Tourist Board, Greg Canty, Deirdre Waldron, Doreen O’Mahony and all at Fuzion PR, Martina Carroll, Niall Toibin, Des Bishop, Cathal Murray, Ger and Jemma, Paddy O’Gorman, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Paul Bugler, Judy Murphy, Pauline Scanlon, Donogh Hennessy, Michael McSweeney, Tabor Lodge, Knight of Glin, Mark O’Halloran, Nuala O’Faolain, Ursula Earley, Paul Durcan, John Creedon, Jimmy MacCarthy, Edel O’Connell, Fred, Sinead Harrington, Brendan and Lucy Fitzgerald, Jack L, Marian Egan, Tim Vaughan, Joe Dermody, Emma Forrester, Ger Fitzgibbon, Vic Merriman, Fr Micheál Mac Gréil, Professor John A. Murphy, the Irish Pioneer Movement, Seamus Heaney and all the staff at the Kingsley Hotel.
The author and publishers thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:
Jimmy Crowley for a verse from ‘A Sorrowful Lamentation on the recent Price Increases on Ales, Wines and Spirits’, from ‘The Boys of Fairhill’ by Jimmy Crowley and Stokers Lodge, CRO 001 on Freestate Records, [email protected].
Jimmy MacCarthy for two verses from ‘Missing You’.
Gill & Macmillan
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Park West
Dublin 12
with associated companies throughout the world
www.gillmacmillan.ie
© Brian O’Connell 2009, 2012
First published by Gill & Macmillan 2009
This ebook edition published by Gill & Macmillan 2012
978 07171 4599 7 (print)
987 07171 5563 7 (epub)
978 07171 5564 4 (mobi)
Cover design by Anú Design (www.anu-design.ie)
Cover photograph by Nix (nixfoto.com)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission of the publishers.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The website addresses referred to in this book were correct at the time of first publication.
About the Author
Brian O’Connell’s work as a journalist appears in the Irish Times and several international publications. In 2007, he won the John Healy National Print Award. He has reported from India on child trafficking, the Democratic Republic of Congo on gender violence, and Mozambique on the effects of climate change. Brian is a regular contributor to Irish radio and in 2009 co-presented a traditional music series on RTÉ 1 television, entitled ‘The Reel Deal’.
About Gill & Macmillan
Gill & Macmillan’s story begins in 1856 when Michael Henry Gill, then printer for Dublin University, purchased the publishing and bookselling business of James McGlashan, forming McGlashan & Gill. Some years later, in 1875, the company name was changed to M.H. Gill & Son. Gill & Macmillan as we know it today was established in 1968 as a result of an association with Macmillan of London. There was also a bookshop, popularly known as Gills, located on Dublin’s O’Connell Street for 123 years until it eventually closed in 1979. Today our bookshop can be found online at www.gillmacmillan.ie.
Gill & Macmillan is proud to publish a broad range of non-fiction books of Irish interest, from history to economics, politics to cookery and biography to children’s. Since 1968, we have published outstanding authors and groundbreaking books such as the Encyclopaedia of Ireland, David McWilliams’ The Pope’s Children, Noël Browne’s Against the Tide, Garret FitzGerald’s All in a Life, Augustine Martin’s Soundings – not to mention three generations of Ballymaloe’s Allen family on our cookery list.
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