We've had a fabulous summer here in New Zealand with plenty of hot days and good breeze. I hope you too have had a good break over Christmas/New Year. 

Research for IRISH SHORTS has continued, and I'm pleased to say it's growing into something bigger, a novel.

On March 17, the world will dress up in green and have a bit of fun – and not because we’re all Irish through and through. But for those of us who do have Irish heritage, it’s a reminder to reconnect with our past and reminisce.

Like all heroes and saints, the stories of St Patrick have been exaggerated over the centuries but a few details can be roughly verified. Although he was born in Roman Britain around AD 420, St Patrick was captured by Irish pirates when he was fourteen, taken to Ireland as a slave, and forced to herd and tend animals. Sometime over the next six years he turned to God and wrote his memoir: The Confessions. Inspired by a dream in which God told him to escape, he fled to the coast and managed to sail home to his family in England.

However, as often happens, apparently God knocked on his door a second time and St Patrick decided to heed the call and become a priest. He returned to Ireland (a land of Druids and pagans) as a missionary and somehow managed to convert the wild Irish to Christianity. He was clever enough to choose the three-leafed clover, known in Ireland as the shamrock, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He obviously had a load of charm and cunning, and, so, the legend began, boosted by miracles. He died on March 17, 461.

Today I remember my grandmother and the Irish linen tea towel hanging in her kitchen with the following words attributed to St Patrick - called St Patrick’s Breastplate:

I’ve replaced the word CHRIST with LOVE but other words work equally well.

Love be with me, love within me

Love behind me, love before me

Love beside me, love to win me

Love to comfort and restore me.

Love beneath me, love above me

Love in quiet, love in danger

Love in hearts of all who know me

Love in mouths of friend and stranger.

Thanks for reading up to here. My next newsletter will be coming to you sometime in the Southern Hemisphere winter.