This is the twelfth book written by locally-based writer, Anthony Jordan. The Samaritans, a highly esteemed voluntary organisation, has been a feature of Dublin life for nearly 40 years.

The story of its founding in Dublin in 1970, is outlined for the first time in this book. Most surprising is the detail of the opposition it faced from the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid.

The Archbishop expected that all voluntary organisations in his Archdiocese would be under his aegis. A Church of Ireland Canon, Billy Wynn, outmanoeuvred the Archbishop by enlisting notable Catholics to back the Dublin Samaritans.

After some early teething difficulties, which are detailed in this book, the Samaritans have become a welcome organisation available to people who are in distress. The Samaritans now have twenty branches throughout all of Ireland.

The memoir gives a very personal insight into the movie star Daniel Day Lewis, whom the author got to know in the 1980s, when he lived in Sandymount, while making the film about Christy Brown.

Jordan writes that in n 1988 a tall man knocked unannounced at the door of his office at National Association for Cerebral Palsy Ireland, Sandymount School and Clinic. “He gave his name as Daniel Day-Lewis and said he was in Dublin preparing to play the role of Christy Brown in a new film. He wished to spend up to six weeks in our school. It was a Monday morning and I was trying to organise my schedule for the day. I did not ask him to take a seat, intending to send him on his way as quickly as possible.” When he found that Noel Pearson was producing the film and Jim Sheridan was directing, he quickly asked Day-Lewis to take a seat.

Anthony Jordan writes about his childhood in Mayo, boarding for five years in St. Jarlath’s College Tuam, five years as a seminarian in Maynooth and career in Special Education at the Central Remedial Clinic in Clontarf and Enable Ireland in Sandymount.

He also gives the background to his eleven biographical books. He gives a vivid description of the ‘Battle of Ballsbridge’ in 1981.

Many local names feature in the book as the author writes about voluntary community activists. He praises in particular the local parish choir at Star of the Sea Church and looks forward to hearing its church bell ring out, as he walks daily with his dog ‘Murphy’ in Irishtown Nature Park.

The book is available at all good bookshops, including Books on the Green in Sandymount Village. ‘THE SAMARITANS– MEMOIR OF A BIOGRAPHER’ by Anthony Jordan is published by westportbooks@yahoo.co.uk at €16.