Mother's Day

Gemma McKenna
QUB Sheena Campbell Cumann
Ógra Shinn Féin

Ah yes its that time again were we buys cards, maybe chocolates and flowers and if they are really lucky they get a break from making the Sunday dinner and are brought out for a meal.

But what is Mother’s day really all about? Some would say it is just another commercial holiday and not important at all. But think about it.... It is a day set aside in the year so we can take the time to reflect and appreciate exactly what our mothers do for us each and every day!


I must admit that I do take my own mother for granted...as we all probably do at some point in our lives. Now I ask you to take the time to reflect and think about the pivotal role your mother plays in your life...she carried you for 9 months.. ...then give you life and from that moment she has spent every moment of her life protecting you ... guiding you and then constantly worrying about you especially throughout our “rebellious teenage years”!

One may think that a mother’s role ends when the child becomes an adult but this is completely untrue instead our mothers have to hope that we will remember the lessons she has taught us and be able to fulfil our own goals. But a mother will never stop wanting to shield her child from the dangerous and cruel place that the world can be, so the hardest thing a mother has to do is let her child go and hope they will survive on their own.

So today I think it is a fitting time to remember all those mothers who played a key role throughout the struggle!

They supported their children in their decision even though they probably wished and prayed that they would change their minds. So I want you all to take the time to remember especially the mothers of all the hunger strikers who undergone heart ache and pain, I am sure no-one can comprehend the suffering they went through each moment they knew what their child was going through, enduring and the helplessness they felt that they could not stop it without going against their child wishes and instead pledge their love and support to their sons.

I want you to take the time and read this poem that Bobby Sands wrote to his mother called Dear Mum:

Dear Mum, I know you're always there
To help and guide me with all your care,
You nursed and fed me and made me strong
To face the world and all its wrong.
What can I write to you this day
For a line or two would never pay
For care and time you gave to me
Through long hard years unceasingly.
How you found strength I do not know
How you managed I'll never know,
Struggling and striving without a break
Always there and never late.
You prayed for me and loved me more
How could I ask for anymore
And reared me up to be like you
But I haven't a heart as kind as you.
A guide to me in times of plight
A princess like a star so bright
For life would never have been the same
If I hadn't of learned what small things came.
So forgive me Mum just a little more
For not loving you so much before,
I give my thanks for eternity.

We are living in a completely different time and in different circumstance but yet the love for a mother to her child will always remain the same.

So be thankful today for the woman that has nurtured you and guided you from birth and whose love will survive over everything because there is no love than that of a mother for her young.