Jaywalking with the Irish (25 page)

The encounter with Ireland that this book describes was made possible by many beneficent spirits. First of all, our families, whose astounding selflessness blessed our passage; Mick and Hylda Buckley, who opened some of the first gates to Cork; the hearty souls of Bellevue Park, who accepted us with every Irish blessing; and Paddy and Anne Wilkson, who kept the link alive for decades. Gratitude is in fact owed to more Corkonians than can be mentioned here – to people like Peter Murray and John McMonigle, who nearly lifted the Cork magazine idea into being; to Gerry Barnes and the damsels at the Opera House.

Special thanks are in order for those who helped refine the book through its growth pains: Jonathan Williams, Owen McIntyre, and the gentleman and poet Tom McCarthy in the earlier going; and the gifted Lonely Planet editors Janet Austin and Meaghan Amor through the many stops and starts to the home stretch. But Jamie – here was the muse, the partner in jaywalking who turned dream to reality.

A number of texts were also helpful in writing of this book, particularly
The Cork Anthology
(Cork University Press, 1993), edited by Sean Dunne;
Discovering Cork
(Brandon Book Publishers Ltd., 1991) by Daphne D. C. Pochin Mould; and
The Lie of the Land: Journeys through Literary Cork
(Cork University Press, 1999) by Mary Leland. Other historical background came from
The Coast of West
Cork
(Appletree Press Ltd., 1972) by Peter Sommerville-Large;
Sneem, The Knot in the Ring
(Sneem Tourist Association, 1986) by T. E. Stoakley;
The Secret Places of West Cork
(Royal Carbery Books, 1990) by John M. Feehan;
Irish Country Towns
(Mercier Press, Cork, 1994), edited by Anngret Sims and J. H. Andrews;
Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen During the Year of the Famine
(Oxford, 1847, reprinted by Cork Corporation 1996) by Lord Duferin and the Hon. G. F. Boyle; and
Clonakility, a History
(Litho Press, Midleton, Cork, 1999) by Michael J. Collins.

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