So often, one’s narrative and identity can be crafted in reaction to another more dominant force.

In sport, both amateur and professional, you often see a weaker team playing out of their skin when up against a top side. Conversely, a great team can vastly underperform when they’re matched with a lower-ranking side.

How we express ourselves can alter according to who or what we are confronted with. Our identity shifts in relation to another’s actions.

Geographically, we have always been an island nation, nothing has ever changed there. Politically, we have been subsumed by a neighbouring empire and we’ve been our own Republic.

After that Republic was formed and an economy of one’s own needed creating, we reacted. The Anglo-Irish trade war began. Tariffs were introduced on a wide range of imported goods, mostly ones coming in from the Britain. It was unfortunate, because Britain was our largest trading partner by a country mile. The method to the madness was to help Ireland depart from its over-reliance on Britain. The madness of the method caused severe damage to our country’s economy.

It never pays for your action to be motivated by the deeds of others.

In Alan English’s book Stand Up And Fight: When Munster Beat the All Blacks, there is a section where the players of October 31, 1978, recreate the match in their own words. The quotes, when knitted together, give us minute-by-minute of play.

Gerry ‘Ginger’ McLoughlin talks about that early scrum, when the shoulders meet in the front row for the first time — whoever pushed hardest would set the tone and win the game. On that day, Munster pushed the hardest and won that first scrum.

That amateur Munster side, most of whom hadn’t got a look-in with the national side, and who did milk runs and other day jobs on the morning of the match, played that game on their terms, not in reaction to someone else’s. The team went on to win the game, 12-0.

Who are we now as a nation? Are we a leader among nations?

If so, in what ways?

We may not have a national space programme, but one of our scientists, Norah Patten, is en route to become our very first astronaut.

Every time I open the paper, or a news app, I see another Irish writer has won another major literary award. This week it was Danielle McLaughlin winning the Windham-Campbell Prize, worth $165,000 (€146,000) — the third Irish writer in four years to do so.

We were the first country in the world to legalise marriage equality for all, and by popular vote. It mightn’t seem like that big of thing anymore, but in the US, the land of the brave and the free, conversion therapy is illegal in just 15 states. Meaning there are still no conversion therapy laws in more than half of the US. Conversion therapy laws prohibit licensed mental health professionals from subjecting minors to treatment that aims to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Sometimes, you can forget the reasons to be proud of yourself and of who you are. We are a country that went from being blindly deferent to the Church to one where citizens think critically for themselves and with empathy in their hearts.

We have a Taoiseach, one of the few openly gay political leaders in the world, who stood in Washington this week alongside his partner, speaking to a vice-president known for his conservative views.

“I stand here this morning as leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions and not by my sexual orientation,” said Mr Varadkar. “We are after all, all God’s children,” he added.

Our youngest generation took to the streets to urge us into action over the climate. They’re likely to be the first generation we won’t be able to belittle with comments beginning: “Well in my day, we didn’t even have...” These children and young adults who joined in a global march for climate change yesterday both shame and inspire us to act.

The next one is a bit of a stretch, but we’ve just heard that a man by the name of O’Rourke, is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for US President. His name is Beto (Robert), and his family left Ireland in the late 1800s to work on the US railroads. He believes in things such as community, supporting people of all skin colours and helping undocumented migrants find a pathway to papers. He is a former congressman for Texas and he nearly became the state’s senator last November. He believes in unity, not division.

He shares DNA with us.

What else is in our DNA?

Kindness, the kind that comes in the form of practical help.

Cork woman Mary Elmes, whose story brought to life by Clodagh Finn, helped to save hundreds of Jewish children from the Nazi gas chambers. Cork’s newest bridge is to be named after this woman who has been dubbed Ireland’s Oskar Schindler. A highly talented student she shelved an academic career to become an aid worker in the Second World War. After her life-saving work she married and had children, keeping her heroics to herself. It would take Ronald Friend, one of the children she saved, almost 70 years to identify the person to whom he owed his life.

These are the people we are.

This St Patrick’s Day, in the midst of the ever-evolving Brexit, we remain an island nation with a minuscule population, and yet we take our place among the world’s nations for good reason. We are a proud member of the European Union with lessons to learn and to teach.

We must continue to define and own who we are, not in reaction to others, but on our own terms.

We must march to the beat of our own drum.