My cat Piccolo sitting in for W.B. Yeats' black cat Minnaloushe, in the poem. I thought it might be fitting to start off the challenge which is a tribute to Maire, with an Irish poem, to honour her Irish heritage of which she was very justifiably proud.

"The cat went here and there

And the moon spun round like a top

And the nearest kin of the moon,

The creeping cat, looked up.

Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon.

For, wander and wail as he would,

The pure cold light in the sky

Troubled his animal blood."

To see others remembering Maire in song, poem and proverb: http://forum.pbase.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47823&sid=43007bc7bde6f9b742565e0da91d6967

Here is a link to entire poem by W.B Yeats: http://www.poetry-archive.com/y/the_cat_and_the_moon.html