This volume is an account of the author's brief encounters with ten people, each of whom made a substantial mark in Irish life.; The book concentrates on personal recollection, on those moments in the lives of his subjects that intersected with the life of the author. As a five-year-old in 1934, Liam O Murchu sat on his brother's shoulders in a victory parade welcoming a schoolboy hurling hero called Jack Lynch. He worked in the Department of Health when Noel Browne was minister and as an Irish language broadcaster, he came into contact with Sean O Riada and Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich. His other subjects include Siobhan McKenna, Sean MacEntee, Bishop Eamonn Casey, Cyril Cusack, Todd Andrews and Charles Haughey.