Around the Boree Log and the Parish of St Mels

'We'll all be rooned,' said Hanrahan, In accents most forlorn, Outside the church, ere Mass began, One frosty Sunday morn. In his affectionate and gently humorous verses John O'Brien sang of farming life and of the life of Irish settlers in Australia - at home, on the land, and at the Church upon the Hill that is the centre of their lives. This volume combines O'Brien's two books of verse, Around the Boree Log and The Parish of St Mel's. It is verse that is simple and sincere and lit with a kindly understanding of the lives it chronicles. 'He is the Poet Laureate of the Irish settlers in Australia' The Advertiser, Adelaide For when the Holy Morning strung Its beads upon the grass, You'd see us driving - old and young - The tall white graceful trees among, On every road to Mass.