John 0' Brien and his gentle, perceptive, often very funny verses about the life and people of a bygone Irish- Catholic bush community have been popular for generations. His most famous collection, Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, has been continuously in print since its first publication in 1921. Among the characters who come to life so vividly in his poems one archetypal figure, the Little Irish Mother, holds a special' place. To "John O'Brien" Chattier Patrick Hartigan), she represented all that was admirable in family life, undone feels that more than a little personal experience warmed his portrait of the small, determined woman who long ago so enthusiastically "made do" in the old slab hut, who was so keen about "the learning" who,when "the childer " had grown up and drifted away, sat dreaming by the fire surrounded by the memories of the chatter and laughter of her "ten little steps and stains".