"This is not another sad and sorry moan about the hardship of a poverty-stricken childhood, written by someone born in a fourth-floor room in a tenement who went on to lead a successful and varied life: it is not a look back in anger, but rather, a celebration of lives devoted to making better lives for those who came after them."
Black Cat in the Window is the title of the latest musings by the well-known broadcaster Liam O Murchu, now retired, who made the Irish language popular on television and who never forgot his Cork roots.
His memoir features "galloping consumption", fruit-sellers, money-lenders, pawnbrokers, old soldiers, women overwhelmed by children and a riotous way of life in the lanes of Cork's north side where, he says, a bicycle in the hallway was a sign of upward mobility.
The RTE programme Trom agus Eadrom attracted a large audience, and its bilingual nature did much to promote the Irish language. A few words in English here, a few in Irish there, it was easy listening and watching, and Mr O Murchu's effervescent style won him many friends.
Just recently, after the death of Jack Lynch and his State funeral in Cork, RTE repeated one of the programmes dealing with Lynch the Cork man, statesman and sportsman.
It was great viewing and it will be shown again when the definitive programme on Jack Lynch is made.
Mr O Murchu's pride in having a Cork Taoiseach on a programme presented by another Cork man - moreover, one from the same side of the city - shone through.
Liam O Murchu was the youngest of 12, the son of a Dublin Fusilier and a flax-mill worker. Half his siblings were dead before he saw the light of day.
It was not an easy upbringing - neither was Jack Lynch's - but these were bittersweet times and people rowed in to help one another. That spirit exists to this day in Blackpool, where a fierce pride continues to burn on account of its unique - perceived or real - place in the development of Cork.
It was 70 years ago that he was born into the Blackpool community.
His upbringing in such a tumultuous atmosphere was an education in itself, and the lessons were not forgotten. The people, the places, the characters and the will to win through are all recorded here. And, of course, it is written in that inimitable effervescent style.
Black Cat in the Window is published by Collins Press at ú8.99.