Saints Preserve Us!

Saints Preserve Us! That’s an old Irish expression I grew up hearing from ancient aunts and uncles. They weren’t that far “off the boat,” you see and wanted to preserve their Irish heritage as best they could. Thank you, Aunt Norah, Aunt Mabel, Aunt Mamie, and Uncle Dan.   Everybody knows about St. Patrick, right?  […]

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Ireland Today

I started traveling to Ireland ten years ago. It has become my (and my husband’s) favorite destination. Why?   Well, for one thing, it’s so startlingly green! Yes, it’s green where I live in Western North Carolina and it was green where I used to live in upstate New York. But nothing I’ve ever seen […]

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Dreams of My Childhood

I always just plain wanted to write. As a kid, I was constantly writing–poetry, essays, short stories, jingles. The problem was that no one could read it. Sometimes, even me. That’s because the Sisters at St. Raphael Elementary School in Springfield, Ohio decided I shouldn’t be left handed and switched me over in first grade. When […]

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