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XI Acknowledgments M A N Y I R I S H A N D A M E R IC A N academics and playwrights have helped with this book, and I thank them all. I especially wish to thank Christopher Fitz-Simon, critic, theater historian, director, and actor, who is so very deserving of the esteem and affection that his peers and I have for him; Christopher Murray of University College , Dublin; Clive Geraghty of the Abbey Acting Company; Roger Hallas of Syracuse University, whose expertise in film studies aided in the construction of the filmography; and all my other colleagues in the English Department of Syracuse University who over the span of twenty-nine years have always made me feel that I am part of a proud, purposeful, and distinguished intellectual adventure. Much support also came from Mark Weimer and other librarians of Bird Library at Syracuse University. I am grateful for support from Brian Calhoun-Bryant and Lisa Hanley of the College of Arts and Sciences Computer Services. But most of all I am much indebted to my life partner, Mary Beth Hinton, a fine editor whose advice, skills, and patience helped make this book possible. ...

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