My Dad is one of the most important people in my life. He has always encouraged me, guided me, minded me and listened to me.

Last Father's Day I wrote him a poem to let him know how much he means to me. 

They say everyone's Irish on St Patrick’s Day. I’m lucky enough to be Irish all year around! As a resident Bostonian these days, I often feel more Irish as an emigrant than I did when I lived in Ireland. This is especially true on St Patrick’s Day.

I love to celebrate my Irishness. I bask in the glory of a casual ‘great accent’ or a prideful ‘my great grandparents were Irish’ remark. I feel like we often don’t celebrate our true Irishness enough. Not the leprechaun inspired, green pints of Guinness view of our nation but our true identity as a land of poets, saints and scholars.

As a student of English literature many moons ago I got to study all of the greats and it stirred in me my love of poetry but also a deep national pride. To this day, I read Seamus Heaney and Patrick Kavanagh and my blood turns green.

At every turn I’ll celebrate our inspiring Irish writers and I’ll certainly take advantage of our Patron Saint to do it!! St. Patrick would have wanted us to… ;)

In the run up to St Patrick’s Day, Just Happy Tears will celebrate the Irish literary greats. Feel free to get in touch with any poems that you'd like to see included.

First up... Eavan Boland.