First-time poet repays charity for their support

After losing her husband Foncie in a farming accident in 2018, Roisin Smith found great support from 'Embrace Farm'.

With agriculture consistently ranked the most hazardous profession in Ireland, Embrace Farm provides a support network for those affected by farm accidents.

In a gesture of appreciation for the help the charity provided her, Tullyvin woman Roisin is selling a book of her own poetry and donating proceeds to their cause.

Roisin decided to try out poetry during lockdown to help pass the time and drew inspiration from everyday life.

"I'm a great admirer of nature," she said. "Most of the poetry was about things I could see from my window, such as a little lake near my house that caught my eye for the last 50 years. I know every swan, duck and ripple that ever goes to it.

"I wrote about other things such as going on holidays to Kinsale, not being able to play golf with my grandson during the lockdown, and not being able to go shopping.

"I'm from Wicklow originally so I wrote about my childhood there, such as going to Mass so early on Christmas morning that you could see the morning star. They're very simple poems."

Initially, Roisin hadn't planned on selling her poetry but changed her mind.

"I had written the poems but hadn't thought of selling them. My daughters ran marathons for Embrace so I decided to do something myself with the poems. When I put them together I decided to sell them for Embrace."

She collected the books from the printers on August 18 and on  September 19, Roisin, along with her son Declan and his family set off for the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska.

"My husband and I hadn't missed the ploughing for 30 years and it was my first time back. We were able to give a cheque for €2,700 to Embrace from the book proceeds."

Embrace Farm were very important to Roisin in helping her and her family in the aftermath of Foncie's death.

"Embrace are fantastic. Anybody who goes through the shock and trauma of losing a family member suddenly in the way we did, you reach out and grasp at straws to try and get by.

"We were put in touch with Embrace, they were wonderful like a second family, they could give us support through counseling or help with the many queries that happen when someone dies like that. They haven't got all the answers, but they could put us in touch with someone who does. If I rang Norma or Brian Rohan, who run Embrace they knew exactly who I and my family were." Roisin has since got a second print run of her book and intends to make another donation to Embrace with the proceeds.