Everything Will Be All Right

Chapter 2

Deepest gratitude to the generations now passed of my mother’s Northern Irish family and the inspiration provided by the stories of their complex lives and times. Knowledge of the lives and actions of the men and women whose World War II service at Bletchley Park was secret, and those of the men and women serving in the Royal Navy in other roles was provided by: the BBC’s History of World War II; Bletchley Park Museum archives; Sinclair McKay’s The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, and Dermot Turing’s The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park. Thanks to the authors of the following resources for the history of Northern Ireland: Ireland in the 20th Century, by Tim Pat Coogan; Nell, by Nell McCafferty; A History of Ulster, by Jonathan Bardon; the RTÉ Archives and The Irish Times. Much gratitude for the inspiration provided by “Everything Will Be All Right,” by the late Ulster poet Derek Mahon—a poem that offers the perfect mixture of irony and comfort to readers mired in trouble. My deepest appreciation and gratitude go to my wife, Suzy Q Groden, who, in addition to her many other accomplishments and talents, is a skilled, creative and patient editor. Finally, a note to acknowledge the centenary of the partition of Ireland in 1921, and the cleaving of history and generations that act wrought, and still brings to bear.

The Secret Life of Bletchley ParkThe Codebreakers of Bletchley ParkIreland in the 20th CenturyNellA History of Ulster