A Sheepdog Named Oscar: Love and companionship in rural Ireland by Dara Waldron is more than just a tale about one man and his dog.

The Co. Limerick-based lecturer, whose grandfather was the doctor at Tuam sugar beet factory, said that his memoir is also about being alone and counteracting it.

It is in addition a story about inter-species companionship, love, and loss.

Oscar the border collie came into the author's life on the first anniversary of the death of his father, John Waldron, a well-known GP and lifelong lover of horses, in a road traffic accident.

The sudden loss of John had left Dara, who lives with his wife and two sons in Murroe, close to Glenstal Abbey, shattered.

A suggestion that he find a retired working dog - the type so often seen in rural Ireland, tied to a shed by a rope - led him to Oscar, who was hiding in a shed on a dilapidated farm in east Co. Clare, after straying to the village.

While Dara initially believed that he was the one doing the rescuing - as Oscar displayed submissive behaviour that hinted at a troubled past - he began to see the sheepdog as the rescuer.

The author helped his loyal canine companion to "have the confidence to find his bark. Oscar, meanwhile, assisted him in navigating a period of intense grief."

There are references in A Sheepdog named Oscar to music, art, cinema, folklore, animal welfare, and the beauty of the Irish landscape.

Dara observed that events that are of very little value for some can be for others a source of "golden" joy.

Nothing, he contended, "can prepare us for the bit-by-bit return from perpetual sadness - that emotion that creeps up on us over time and stays unwanted - to gradients of joy".

The book follows on from the publication of a study in 2023 by Dara of shepherding traditions.

This deeply personal new publication gives lots of insights into rural life and heritage.

A Sheepdog named Oscar is published by Simon & Schuster UK and available now.