“The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick” by Sherry Weaver Smith, reads like a heartwarming parable. Although it is ostensibly a children’s story, ideal for ages seven through twelve, this lovely book hit all the requisite high notes to hold my rapt attention: that it is set in…

My father’s mother was named Helen Ford. She was long and lithe, narrow and fluid, and gifted with a full head of wavy hair that turned, in her later years, to a color that by-passed gray completely to shine an enviable white. Her family hailed from Tuam, County Galway, and as I write, I’m glancing up at the…

I’ve had many people ask about the picture on my author page where I’m standing against a gray stone wall on a windswept day in the middle of an Irish field with what are obviously the ruins of a monastery behind me. Observant people have said to themselves, “Wait, there’s a ruined…