Michael John Kilgannon has written a finely wrought memoir which takes the reader back to his grandmothers and his parents and he demonstrates the resilience of those generations in surviving, despite the aftermath of the Famine, landlords evictions, and emigration, as well as Ireland’s violent path to independence. This background, with an uncle lost in the Titanic, another uncle shot to death in the War of Independence, his father shot and wounded, sets the tone for Michael John’s life, his epiphanies, passions, and frustrations.