Laois artist's drawing inspires tribute to mother by local writer

A piece of artwork by a Laois artist and writer, has inspired a local retired teacher and writer to put down in words her own tribute to her mother.

Artist Siobhán Parkinson is exhibiting her works in Mountmellick Library Gallery for the month of February, including this depiction of a mother and all the demands she faces. Siobhán is inspired by her imagination, meditation and dreamwork to create her art.

She invited her fellow members in Laois Writers Group to write pieces inspired by the work.

Sheelagh Coyle wrote this piece of prose. 

A Mother’s Love

This speaks to me of what life must have been like for my mother and the many mothers who bore too many children. The mother holds her child, but she cannot hold her child for too long and comfort it as many hands reach out to her all day and through the night too. They want food and bottles. They want their bottoms wiped. They need her to listen to their spellings and tables. They want a cut knee washed and bandaged. They want a fight between siblings sorted out. Most mothers hadn’t a minute to themselves

A young woman I know had her second child recently. Her other child was nearly nine when she gave birth to this child. The father of the new-born child took two weeks paternity leave to assist the new mother with their baby, which was wonderful. They took turns getting up for night feeds.

More below photo.

Below: artist Siobhán Parkinson and Sheelagh Coyle (front left) pictured with their fellow members in Mountmellick Library Writers Group. Back: Heather Goodwin, Mary Corcoran, Louis Deacy, Caroline Keane. Front: Siobhán Parkinson, Colette Wrafter, Sheelagh Coyle, Hazel Restrick, Mary Byrne, Noreen Murphy and coordinator Olivia Murray at the premiere of The Ripple Effect Project at Dunamaise Arts Centre recently. Photo: Michael Scully

Now when I was nearly nine my mother came home with her seventh child. My father didn’t take time off work to help her. Most fathers took no part whatsoever in the rearing of children at this time. I then had two sisters and four brothers. My mother would have three more children before she was forty. We all had to be fed and washed. Our clothes had to be washed too and our beds made. The house had to be cleaned.

All this work fell on these great mothers, some with no running water in their houses and with none of today's modern appliances. There wasn’t much time to comfort us when we fell or to listen to our stories from school, or to praise us for good results in school tests.

The many hands kept reaching out to her as in Siobhan’s painting all day every day.

There is a song ‘A Mother’s Love is a blessing’ sung at funerals sometimes as mother’s coffins are carried shoulder high down the aisle of the church after Mass. I don’t like the song but it speaks to some people. The lyrics include the lines,
‘Keep her while she’s living
You’ll miss her when she’s gone.’
The song ends with the words,
‘For you’ll never miss a mother’s love
‘Til she’s buried beneath the clay.’

How true indeed. My mother died in her 89 th year in 2015 when I was in my sixties so I had her for a long time. She was in a Nursing Home at the time of my 60 th birthday and she didn’t want the other residents to know that she had a daughter of sixty.

‘Why not?’ I asked.

‘Oh, they’ll think I’m very old,’ she said, much to my amusement.

So, to those of you here tonight who still have your mothers cherish them every day.

If their hands now reach out to you I hope you can help them in whatever way you can as a thank you for all the times your hands reached out to them throughout your life.

Festival full of dramatics returns to Laois community theatre

By Sheelagh Coyle.
January 2023 – Mountmellick Library
A response to Siobhan Parkinson’s painting ‘A mother’s love’

Siobhán Parkinson's exhibition is free to visit during Mountmellick Library opening hours.