Sullivan was a born actor. Blessed and cursed with the artist's gifts and temperament in full measure, he could hold an audience, or a woman's heart, in the palm of his hand.

From a boyhood stuffed with multi-coloured dreams to defy Galway's slums, through fit-ups and fairs in the Irish countryside, to struggle and renown in Dublin, London and New York, his crowded, generous journey was rich in comedies, disappointments and surprises.

Success was as capricious as the seasons. But when it came, was it enough?

Could it replace the one girl who had learnt always to expect the unexpected from Sullivan . . . ?