Celebrate St. Brigit this Sunday in Nenagh Arts Centre.

The first of February is Lá Fhéile Bríde or the Feast of St. Brigit. There will be an illustrated talk on the eve of St. Brigit at Nenagh Arts Centre on Sun 31st. January at 2pm. This will be followed by a an opportunity to make and take home your own St. Brigit’s Cross, under the guidance of artist Hanna Van Aelst.

In the Celtic Calendar the Feast of St. Brigit coincides with the festival of Imbolc, which translates as ‘in the belly’ – traditionally the beginning of the lambing season. Brigit (or Brighid, Bridgit, Brig, Bride) is an ancient pan-Celtic Goddess, whose cult was found in several parts of Europe, but was particularly strong in France, Portugal, parts of Britain and especially Ireland.  She is associated with fire, water, healing, fertility and childbirth.  She was also a goddess of war in some countries.  She is the patron of artists, poets and smiths.

Devotion to Brigit was very strong in Ireland and with the coming of Christianity, veneration of her continued and she became Saint Brigit.  One of the earliest (if not the earliest) accounts of St. Brigit’s life is that written by Cogitosus, a monk who appears to have come from Kildare, and who wrote his Sanctae Vita Brigitae in about 650 AD. This is probably the nearest contemporary account of her life.  Cogitosus provides few biographical details of Brigit’s life, saying little other than she was born of noble and Christian parents.

There are several folklore traditions associated with St. Brigit’s Day.  The Irish Folklore Commission records in folklore material collected earlier in the last century, that Donegal wives used to cast the brat Bride (Brigit’s cloak) over calving cows to ease their pain, while in Mayo, cross-dressing boys and girls carried a turnip-headed corn dolly called the brídeog (little Brigit) from house to house on Brigit’s Eve.  It seems this tradition was not confined to Mayo. Thomas Mason, writing on St Brigit’s Crosses in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries in 1945, recounts that a Mrs. Mason from Killarney ,recalls as a small child waiting for the knock on the door announcing ‘the Biddies’.  She recollected that they were dressed in “weird costumes, caps back to front and ferocious masks”. They carried the ‘Biddy’ – a large doll that represented St. Brigit.

The crosses to which Mason refers are crosses made of rushes or straw and known as St. Brigit’s Cross. They were placed in the rafters, usually over the entrance door, on the 1st February, and prayers were said invoking the blessing and protection of the saint throughout the following year. The shape and pattern of the crosses varied and many had lost any resemblance to a cross at all.  The usual shape, however is a four armed cross, but there are also three armed crosses (trieskles), which were often placed in cattle sheds, (particularly in the northern part of the country), whereas the four armed crosses were reserved for the house.

Holy wells are one of the most enduring and tangible links with the early Irish church and perhaps with an even earlier period in Ireland’s history. They are scattered all over the country and local communities appear to take good care of their wells. They are an important part of our Irish heritage (although they are not unique to Ireland), and local communities where they are located often attach a special reverence to the saint associated with the well.  In many cases the local schools or churches are named after the saint to whom the well is dedicated. There a number of wells dedicated to St. Brigit, scattered throughout Ireland and the tradition of visiting wells dedicated to the saint, on her feast day continues to the present day. Some of these wells enjoy popularity beyond the local community.  Among them are: ‘Dabhnach Bhríde’ in Liscannor, Co. Clare, ‘Sruth Bhríde’ in Faughart, Co. Louth and ‘Tobar Bhríde’, near Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, which at one time had an elaborate ritual attached to it.  In Kildare, a well dedicated to the saint, located just outside the town remains an important place of pilgrimage and devotees of the saint visit the well on February 1st each year.

Although many of the other traditions associated with St. Brigit have died out, her feast day is still celebrated by many people in Ireland and beyond and people still make and hang the distinctive St. Brigit’s Cross.

If you would like to hear more about St. Brigit, there will be an illustrated talk on the eve of St. Brigit at Nenagh Arts Centre on Sun 31st. January at 2pm. This will be followed by a an opportunity to make and take home your own St. Brigit’s Cross, under the guidance of artist Hanna Van Aelst.  Light refreshments will be provided.  Admission €10 – All are welcome.  All proceeds to local Tipperary Green Party candidate Gearóid Fitzgibbon’s election campaign. Email katiewalsh13@gmail.com for further details.