Mark Patrick Hederman has been a monk for over fifty years at the Benedictine monastery of Glenstal Abbey, Co. Limerick. He has been abbot of the community and headmaster of the school. Born in Ballingarry, Co Limerick, his latest book Crimson and Gold: Life as a Limerick, is a humorous account of the changing face of Ireland as he has experienced it since the 1950s. His other more recent publications are The Opal and the Pearl [2017], and Living the Mystery [2019] all three published by Columba Press, Dublin].