We’re all familiar with the idea of blood line, the way in which our parents, grand parents and great grand parents pass on their genetic material to us down the ages and how this influences us, from our eye colour and in some cases how we behave. But the milk line refers to those people who are not necessarily blood related but have influenced how we are today.

In former times it was not unusual to foster out children, not as a last resort as fostering is seen today but as a matter of course. This was particularly common during the Celtic period and the best documented references to this can be found within the literature that has come down to us from those times. Within Irish literature accounts of this are particularly common.

We have our genetic makeup but there is conjecture about how much of our behaviour is nature and how much is nurture. This idea of fostering is all about nurture. There were advantages in that it promoted co-operation between groups that may have been potentially antagonistic towards each other and also in widening the gene pool in what may have been small communities.

When I consider my own milk line I can remember those that actively lifted me up in terms of encouragement but also those that actually undermined me at times. At first this seems counter to what the milk line is for but from my current perspective I can see that even what at the time seemed negative and hurtful was in fact a gift from which I have benefitted.

So what about your milk line, how has your life been influenced by those that nurtured you in whatever way that was?