Dear Dáithí: I love my niece, but it hurts to be left out of her wedding

I can’t help feeling so hurt that she is not including me, I feel like all that investment I put into her growing up means nothing to her

"I really think you need to be the bigger person here. It’s coming across like she owes you something, if you don’t mind me saying. She owes you nothing."

I HAVE always had a very close relationship with my brother’s daughter. She is the only girl of all the cousins and having had four boys myself, when she came along, I really bonded with her.

As she grew up, I always made sure to give my niece exciting days out for her birthday and special back-to-school days every September, right up until she went to college. When she went travelling, I gave her a significant sum of money, and even arranged for her to stay with an old friend of mine in Australia for a couple of weeks to get her settled over there.