On my first Mother’s Day as a mother, I cried in my bedroom. I cried tears of happiness, tears of relief, I cried the tears that I had been holding in for the five Mother’s Days before that.

You see, it took us five years to have our first baby, the first five years of our marriage. I don’t like to tar that whole part of our marriage with one brush, we were very happy together. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that there were many lonely, sad and often stressful moments.

The truth is, our ‘journey’ made me a better mother, and extremely appreciative of our blessings.

So on that first Mother’s Day, when I saw my two-month-old daughter, aka my little doll, with a card in her tiny hands with the word ‘Mammy’ across it, well the tears flowed. I felt like the luckiest mammy in the world, and now we’re even more blessed with our son. Sometimes I wish I could tell that girl in the early years of marriage not to worry, that things would be ok. But life doesn’t work like that, and the truth is, our ‘journey’ made me a better mother, and extremely appreciative of our blessings.

I’m very conscious that Mother’s Day isn’t an easy day for many. There are women yearning to be a mother, others who have sadly lost their baby or child, there are many missing their own mother whether this is their first year without her or their 40th.

So let me tell you that we do have some Mother’s Day content in this week’s paper because mothers deserve to be celebrated. But we have aimed to be gentle in our approach. And if this year, you just need to skip those features, that’s fine. You do you, we understand.

International Women's Day

For those looking for a heartwarming read however, check out the feature on Duck Blue on page 6, written by Maria Moynihan. Run by Ruth Cahill from Maynooth, she gave up work when her son Harry was born with cystic fibrosis. Now that he is a teenager, she has pursued her passion to design her own range of greeting cards. She says in the piece that the lessons she learned as a mother and carer have helped her to be a better career woman.

Speaking of career women, it is of course, International Women’s Day this Friday and on page 26, Claire Murrihy has a piece celebrating women in the agriculture industry. From taking an entrepreneurial eye to the sheep’s milk on the family farm and creating a beauty brand, as is the case with Nicola Lyons and Elaine Crosse who created Banór; to women like Karen Moynihan who is showcasing the strength of female farmers through social media, the future looks bright for women in the agriculture industry. The piece sits beside Margaret Leahy’s thought-provoking column on the unsung heroines of Irish agriculture, the farm women of the 20th century. These women were innovators in their own right but often their work wasn’t recognised, not only by their own family, but by the state in the form of a contributory pension. The juxtaposition of the two pieces shows that thankfully, much progress has been made, although there is still more to do.

Finally, this International Women’s Day is more significant than usual due to the referendum on whether amendments should be made to the Constitution regarding the concept of the family and carers. It is not my place to sway your vote, we all have our own responsibility to research and use our voice. But whatever side of the fence you fall on, please do vote, especially if you are a woman. Think of all those who have gone before us that fought hard so that we could have our say.