Opinion: it would celebrate Brigid as both Celtic goddess and Christian saint, as well as an Irish woman of strength, resilience and hope
We are due to hear shortly about the announcement of a new national holiday in Ireland to bring us in line with countries across Europe. While many people would welcome another long weekend, there is also an opportunity to highlight our Irishness and sow new seeds to celebrate our future. Currently, there is a vibrant campaign, spearheaded by Melanie Lynch of Herstory, to make February 1st, Brigid's Day, Ireland’s latest public holiday. The campaign is gathering great momentum across the country and with the diaspora and this petition has attracted over 12,000 signatures to date.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline, Imelda May calls for Brigid's Day to be a new national holiday and listeners lend their support to the idea
So who was Brigid? She was a Celtic goddess, a Christian saint and a symbol of feminine power, strength and ancient wisdom that transcends religion, making her inclusive and appealing to all faiths and none. Our ancestors understood the importance of marking the end of Winter and celebrating the start of Spring, the return of the light, and the chance to plant new seeds. The demands at Springtime were great as they prepared to clear, sow and plant for a good harvest. They needed fitness, nourishment and inspiration at the end of Winter. Brigid gifted them new vision for future prosperous times heralding the warmer, bright days.
February 1st, Brigid’s day, is the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolg (also Imbolc), celebrating the first day of Spring in Ireland. The sunlight is clearly returning and, whether we feel it or not, the snowdrops and emerging daffodils tell of a shift upwards in temperatures as the new season asks us to feel the turn of natural Earth energies with walks in the fresh blustery air.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Ray D'Arcy Show, historian Dervilia Roche on St Brigid's Day
Most of us remember the myths and legends from schooldays of this Irish female matron saint from spreading her cloak over the plains of Curragh to weaving her iconic equilateral cross of reeds. Brigid founded a spiritual community for both women and men in Kildare, a thriving egalitarian monastery of men and women, living and practicing equally side-by-side. She is the saint of babies, midwives, blacksmiths, scholars, crafters and nature lovers inspiring poetry and the creative arts. As an Ulster Goddess and a Leinster Saint, she is the epitome of an all-Ireland, all-Island icon.
A new public holiday on Brigid’s Day would focus on her as both Celtic goddess and saint as well as the archetypal Irish woman of strength, resilience and hope. We are still waiting for a public holiday to celebrate an Irish woman and Mná na hÉireann. As Brigid is renowned for her gift of healing, this is an opportunity to honour our pandemic heroes and heroines and those who sadly died by making Brigid’s Day the chosen date.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Almanac of Ireland, Manchán Magan reads accounts of St Brigid's Day traditions as collected by schoolchildren in the 1930s for The School's Collection
Nearing the end of the Decade of Centenaries, Brigid’s Day is also an opportunity to acknowledge how far we have come in 100 years; and the enormous courage required to face our troubled histories and the recent challenges of the pandemic. The 1916 Rising leaders and Irish philosophers John Moriarty and John O'Donohue all honoured and shared the Celtic wisdom tradition, highlighting its relevance and inspiration as a guiding force for modern Ireland.
As Herstory's Melanie Lynch says,"there has been some resistance to our new public holiday having a connection to the Catholic Church. This is understandable given the trauma and abuse that we as a nation are still processing.
"However, it’s important to highlight the fact that St. Brigid came from the early Irish Christian tradition which was far more progressive than today’s Catholic Church, and pre-dates the Reformation, before any division between Catholics and Protestants. Brigid is the embodiment of true Christianity, renowned for her compassion, healing gifts and care for the poor and sick. The Saint is an anomaly for modern Catholicism in that she was Ireland’s first recorded abortionist and a lesbian - both facts are recorded by medieval monks in the Annals."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Éamonn Donnelly from trade union Fórsa and Neil McDonnell from the Irish SME Association discuss the possibility of a new bank holiday
Today the many wells throughout the country bearing her name are visited on February 1st by people of all walks of life. There have also been an increasing number of events associated with the day including Féile Bríde in Kildare, the Brigid of Faughart Festival in Dundalk, the Lá Fhéile Bríde Festival at the Clondalkin Well in Dublin and the Brigid's Way Celtic Pilgrimage, Ireland's 9 day version of the Camino de Santiago, attracting international secular pilgrims.
As a nation, we are rising to be a world leader of peace, prosperity and liberal progress. In one generation, Ireland has transformed itself from No Country for Women to a nation with a growing international reputation for equality, diversity and inclusion. Brigid’s Day is a time for rebirth and renewal, an opportunity to dream and to imagine our future together - could we do this in 2022 on our new national holiday?
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
