Sainte Bastien

Pain, fear, ambition, love and loss form a maelstrom, as widowed trainer Nick Marchant loses control of his troubled teenage son and must choose between protecting the family name – or those around him.

Grey Motive

Jack is failing at school and the Racing Futures Programme is his final chance.

Chris and Terry have a potential champion racehorse that they can’t afford to keep.

Joy finds herself the prime suspect when money goes missing from a betting office.

Three different problems, but can DI Les de Freitas find a common link in a seemingly motiveless theft? As their lives intertwine against a backdrop of a once-in-a-lifetime Triple Crown bid, who will be the first to crack under pressure?

Chantilly Dawns

When young top jockey Marcel Dessaint loses his racing licence, his whole world falls apart. Accused of deliberately pulling up healthy horses, Marcel is passed a verdict of Gross Misconduct and forced to endure the enmity of his peers. With a famous face and nowhere to hide in Chantilly, Marcel becomes an outcast in the only world he knows.

With The Derby now out of his reach, he struggles to overcome his self-doubt, while battling to uncover the truth behind the horses’ defeats and clear his name.

As he gradually fears he may have been betrayed by someone close to him, he discovers all too late that it’s not just his licence on the line. Lives are at stake.

The Maker’s Name

The Considine brothers, Rudi and Gus, are at war.

Their father, Malachi, has died in a ‘freak accident’. But are there actually such things as freak accidents? When Rudi attempts to grab Gus’s inheritance there’s a real prospect of human blood appearing on the Hawthorne Meats slaughterhouse floor. Enter Cosgrave, a solicitor with expensive tastes, and Toomarood, the banker with an eye to making money outside of his day job. Mix in the ‘free’ energy device, after experts have stated that the promoters are suffering from long-term, severe self-delusion. Does this all make up a catastrophe waiting to happen?

The Reconstitution of Ireland

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.

The letters are accompanied by essays that explain their context in the history of Ireland, and the situation of the author at the times they were written.

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.

Queen of the Ploughing

My childhood memories are a string of small scenes …
Mam in her crossover apron, head bent over the sewing machine.
Dad standing still in the farm yard, pausing for the Angelus.
The joy of waking on Christmas morning to the smell of the pudding that had been
simmering all night.
The shock of brightness at night when the electricity came to our home.
The mellow sound of my mother’s melodeon playing The Spinning Wheel.
We were blessed with a truly happy family home and that was all thanks to Mam and
Dad. My story begins in Clonpierce, which is about two miles from the village of Ballylinan
in Co Laois. That’s where I was born on Friday, 11 May 1934. That’s right. I’m 83 years
young as I write this. I have often dodged the question of my age when I’ve been interviewed
as I’m not the kind of person who shouts their age from the rooftops. That’s for reasons I’ll
explain later. But it would be quite difficult to tell your life story without giving a date of
birth so there you have it.

The Boy Who Started Celtic

All great journeys begin with a single step. As a boy, Andrew Kerins did not know he was starting a great journey when he sold a calf at County Sligo’s Ballymote Fair and took the boat to Scotland. As Brother Walfrid, he helped people and started one of the world’s best-known football clubs.

How Billy Brown Saved the Queen

Billy Brown was quite surprised to find himself standing in the Queen’s bedroom. It was 4.12am on a Friday morning and she was eating an egg.

Wonderful Life. By chance, by love, by friendship

 In a world often chaotic, where souls wander seeking authentic connections, Monica and Chiara met like two stars destined to shine together. Their friendship has roots so deep as to withstand the storms of life, a bond woven with the desire to spread noble values, generosity, and brotherly love. Every step of their journey is illuminated by an invisible but powerful guide, the hand of God who, with His miraculous touch, protects and supports them in the challenges and obstacles they encounter along the way. The strength of their bond is tested by unexpected situations, by complex choices that require courage and determination. Their intertwined lives are a shining example for anyone who wishes to share hopes, spread love, and build bridges of brotherhood. May their story inspire each of us to cultivate deep and authentic relationships, based on love and faith in the Divine. Inspired by true events experienced by the author. 

Beautiful Mind. When reason joins the heart

On a day that seemed like many others, the life of Elena, a young precarious worker skeptical of faith, was suddenly shaken by the loss of her last relative. In that moment of deep existential crisis, she decided to make a radical move: to completely clean out everything she owned in her house. While rummaging through forgotten objects in an old trunk, her gaze met some yellowed letters. They were the letters of her maternal grandmother, Gemma, and in them she often found the same enigmatic phrase: “beautiful mind.” What could it mean? Who could this “beautiful mind” be? Curiosity pushed Elena to embark on a journey in search of an answer. In the enveloping silence of outer and inner solitude, Elena found herself face to face with herself and with an indefinable, almost tangible presence. It was as if God himself were beside her, guiding her on a path of inner discovery. With every step forward, with every clue gathered along the way, Elena began to shed light on herself and on the revelation of the wonderful mind: the beautiful mind. That inner journey transformed Elena, giving her new awareness and new strength. She discovered that beauty lies not only in outward appearance, but above all in the depth of the human soul. And so, thanks to her grandmother’s letters and her courage to go beyond her own fears, Elena embraced her beautiful mind with gratitude and trust in the future.