For over 46 years the author has been having his letters published in The Irish Times.

Divorce referendums, morality and the law, religious glorification of violence, religion in schools, institutional child abuse, celibate clergy, “aggressive secularism”, abortion and the Repeal the Eighth campaign, religious oaths for public office; they’re all there, but particularly strong is the drive, made in a succinct, lucid and forceful voice, and carried consistently over so many years, for a secular society. The Reconstitution of Ireland charts Ireland’s journey from the depressing, stultifying country that had demonised Edna O’Brien, John McGahern, Brendan Behan, and had made a misery of the lives of so many, to the internationally respected, relatively liberal nation we have today. Who knows, the letters might even have had an effect, however small, on the process of enlightenment.

There are published letters and prose on Ireland in the European Union, the financial crisis, the bishop who set up an exorcism team, gun violence in the US, Donald Trump, Cystic Fibrosis, Ursula von der Leyen and the war in The Middle East, Irish neutrality, Ukraine, wine bottle corks, books, and so many other topics of abiding interest.

SAINT HELEN – Flying Free from Ideology is inspired by real events in Ireland towards the end of the 20th century: a teacher who lost her job for getting pregnant while unmarried, and an extortion attempt on a multinational gas exploration company that has never before been reported. To attempt to fly above the small-mindedness of 1980s provincial Ireland, Helen Peavoy and her partner Ned Rocket must oppose those supremely powerful authorities who would have her reject her child in order to retain her position as a teacher. Despite an abundance of courage and commitment on her part it did not always go well for her. Her story highlights the hypocrisy that allowed church authorities to fire her for getting pregnant while at the same time supervising the operation of chambers of horror for vulnerable girls who fell into their clutches, and the cover-up of egregious child sexual abuse. Intertwined with Helen’s story are the activities of those who lost all sense of compassion in pursuit of their goal of a united Ireland.

By placing these events at the heart of a highly credible story, told in lucid and engaging prose that includes convincing characters, Saint Helen constitutes a narrative that will grab the reader right from the start. It also highlights the distance the country had to travel to vindicate the rights of women, a requirement that is still, in truth, ongoing.