Listen to Your Heart: My Life in Ireland and Canada

In this vivid account of nearly 100 years of passionate life, Shivaun Gannon takes us through eras, countries, and changing fortunes with her enchanted storytelling. Born into a large, spirited Irish nationalist family, Shivaun spent her childhood in "the garden of Ireland," speaking Gaelic, cycling in the Wicklow Mountains and swimming in the Irish sea, as electricity, motorcars and wireless radios made their first appearances. A young woman when WWII broke out, she describes with heartbreaking and powerful clarity the parties, near misses and losses wrought on Ireland through the personal lens of her deeply involved family of doctors, nurses, motorcycle dispatchers, aeronautical engineers, and her own marriage and early family life in the midst of war. Post WWII, the Gannons made the difficult decision to emigrate, sight unseen, to Canada - leaving behind deep, proud Irish family roots to begin life anew with six children in Winnipeg. There, harsh winters, poverty, as well as opportunity, incredible resilience and family bonds take the Gannons on a rollicking journey full of music, invention, faith and strength.