<p>From this mosaic of memory a self-portrait emerges that takes its author, a child of Hitler's war, from his upbringing in Callan to the threshold of his career as one of Ireland's most distinguished playwrights. The frontier town of Callan was a crucible of Ireland's War of Independence. Thomas Kilroy's pro-Treaty father ? a police sergeant who found solace in greyhounds and gambling ? and his anti-Treaty mother were emblems of divided loyalty...