To all the Donegal mammies and of course to mothers everywhere, a very happy Mother's Day

To mothers everywhere we wish you a very happy Mother's Day. To mark it we thought this poem ‘When all the others were away at Mass’ by Seamus Heaney was something you might enjoy. Happy Mother's Day to all mums, and to the mothers sadly no longer with us, you are in our thoughts too this lovely sunny spring morning in Tir Conaill, and wherever you are, we hope the sun is shining on your lives, whatever about your back gardens . . .

When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes
From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.

So while the parish priest at her bedside
Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying
And some were responding and some crying
I remembered her head bent towards my head,
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives–
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.