Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dermot and Ann O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan, Joe and Vera O’Rourke, Carmel Burke, Tony and Josephine O’Brien, Ann Marie O’Donnell, Mrs Quinn, Tom and B. Mae Dinan, Frank Muggivan, Ann and Stephen

O'Farrell, John and Maisie O’Rourke, Norbert and Helga Hau, Patricia Donnellan, Edward Corry, Liam and Theresa Flannery, Frank McDermot, Joe Duffy, Dennis Woods and Rose Tiernan.

Dedicated to my wife, Mary, and sons Brendan, Kevin, Gerard and Ross, and daughter-in-law, Erin

Tony

Thanks to Alyson Mitchell, Devi Subramaniam, Joyce Whetstone, Maria Shcherbakov, Dale Hickey, Margie Miller, Susan Parisi, Cheryl Roche, Angela Reid, Angela Amato and Kate Kane Laborde for much appreciated encouragement, advice and support. Bridget Jatho, Christy McGrail Ferguson, Sean Muggivan and Patti Muggivan for very valuable editing. Mary Ann McGrath Swaim for her valuable insights on food obsession, and Jirina Fiala for hours of consultation and readiness to listen. A special thanks to the entire Irish community in New Orleans and my colleagues and staff at the Center for Individual and Family Counseling, who have

wondered if this story would ever reach print. My gratitude to the staff of Gill & Macmillan for their help in the final stages of preparation.

Dedicated to my wife, Patti; to my son, Sean; to my daughter, Joni