I would like to acknowledge my huge debt to the pioneering work done in this area by two local men. Eddie Boylan's notebooks are a treasure trove of local lore, national news and ancient knowledge. They are crying out to be edited professionally and brought to wider attention. My heartfelt thanks to Tommy Murphy from Ballycarnan who kindly granted me access to his late father's archive. Again, proper editing and publication are the very least this substantial work deserves. Eddie Boylan (1906-86) and Thomas P. 'Tommy' Murphy (1919-1995) are the true pathfinders. I am only trotting after them.

Thanks to everyone who trusted me with invaluable family documents, tolerated my incessant queries, or helped me in any way. Such was the generosity of so many people that, for much of the time, my job was simply to transcribe.

Thanks, too, to everyone who told me stories I couldn't use this time. The one, for instance, about the land-grabbing dynasty whose every descendant was cursed to be born with a tail. Or the local patriot who disguised himself as a woman to seduce a Black and Tan..... The man who brought his wife's coffin on an ass-and-cart from Kilkenny to Dysart.... The Whitefoot who injured himself while escaping from Maryborough Jail and hid in a cornfield, only to be discovered when someone noticed that he had eaten a patch all around him. Or the 'cow doctor' who could have saved a man from being transported to Van Diemen's Land but did not. For the rest of his life he was followed by a shining light....