Analysis: You should be aiming to mark February 1st with a feed of poundies, boxty, colcannon or champ, followed by a dessert of rice pudding
By Caitríona Nic Philibín and Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, TU Dublin
St. Brigid's Day marks the beginning of spring in Ireland. Rooted in the agricultural year, Imbolg or St. Brigid's Day is the first of the four quarter days of the Irish calendar year, along with Bealtaine or May Day, Lughnasa and Oíche Shamhna or Halloween. These four days divide the seasons, guiding the production, storage and consumption of food.
There is an abundance of folklore surrounding these quarter days, records of which can be found in the National Folklore Collection Digital Archives. The Schools' Collection was a scheme undertaken by the Folklore Commission between 1937 and 1938. National School children were tasked with collecting lore from older relatives and community members which they recorded by hand and sent back to the Commission. Many of these stories included food traditions.
The term Imbolg is the older, pre-Christian term for what we now call St. Brigid’s Day. It was a Celtic festival celebrating fertility and the spring awakening. It is here that we first see the relationship between this feast day and food. While there is some academic disagreement regarding the root of the word, it is generally believed that it is linked to both milk or dairy and the lambing season. One iteration of Imbolg, Óimelc is believed to translate to ewes’ milk, alternatively the term Imbolg itself is believed to mean literally 'in the belly’.
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Ó RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta's An Saol ó Dheas le Dr. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire agus Caitríona Nic Philibín at caint faoi an bia i mbailiúchán na Scol.
Although the term Imbolg is no longer widely used, strong links to St. Brigid and dairy production in Ireland's folklore remain evident. In fact, Brigid’s cows apparently provided more milk than any herd in Ireland. Cattle and dairying in Ireland are truly ancient, with evidence of milk found at the Céíde fields over 5,000 years ago and evidence of bog butter recently dated to 4,500 years ago.
In the Schools' Collection, we can see evidence of strong superstitious beliefs surrounding dairy production at this time of year, as well as customs and practices that would ensure you had a plentiful supply of milk and butter for the coming year. The Brat Bhríde, a piece of cloth or a rag, was tied to the gate or spread on a wall on the eve of the feast of St Brigid to be blessed during the night by Brigid as she passed by. This gave it curative and protective properties which could be used in several different ways. If placed upon the back of a cow, for example, it would ensure her milk supply. This Brat Bhríde could also be used in other circumstances, as a fertility aid, to ease the pains of child birth and to provide safe passage on journeys.
Further superstitious practices are seen in the practice of making the St. Brigid's cross. Today in Ireland, we are most familiar with one particular type of cross, popularised in the mid-1960s as the logo for RTÉ, but there were many other variations of this cross made in houses across Ireland. The National Museum of Ireland Country Life at Turlough Park, Co. Mayo has hundreds of different crosses in its collection.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Almanac of Ireland. Manchán Magan reads accounts of St Brigid's Day traditions collected by schoolchildren in the 1930s for The Schools' Collection
Here, we can see another connection between St. Brigid’s Day and food. Some variations of the crosses were made using oats and potatoes. The crosses were hung in the rafters of the house, or in animal sheds and they were believed to provide protection to animals. These potatoes and oats were symbolically used in the first planting of the crops before being sprinkled with holy water and covered in hen dung, as protection against fairy machinations. The evolution of traditions is clear here in the juxtaposition of the pagan and the Christian practices to protect the crops.
While the superstitious practices highlight concern over food supplies for the coming year, St. Brigid's Day was also a day for feasting. In some parts of Ireland, certain types of work which involved the 'turning of wheels’, such as carting, milling and spinning, was carefully avoided and instead the day was dedicated to devotions and feasting.
In Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, folklorist Bríd Mahon notes that butter was always freshly churned and a cake as big as a cartwheel baked on this feast day, made of flour, curds, milk and egg. Mutton, bacon, or a fowl, colcannon, boxty bread, dumplings, rice pudding, and ‘sowans’ (a fermented oat husk drink/flummery) were served at supper. Brigid was also considered the finest maker of ale and mead in Ireland, a welcome addition to any feast.
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From RTÉ Archives, a work song from Donegal called Boxty from recordings made at the Oireachtas na Gaeilge in October 1948
The Schools' Collection records some of the dishes that were prepared for the feast day. Many of these dishes are made with potatoes. Boxty is a pancake made of grated raw potato and cooked mashed potato, which fried in butter or sometimes boiled like a dumpling. It makes an appearance in several counties. One reference, coming from Co. Cavan, states that boxty is the celebratory dish served at both Christmas and St. Brigid’s Day, suggesting the latter was still a significant feast in the not-so-distant past: 'the people long ago had a great feast on that night. They always thought it was the same night as Christmas night, so they had the same feast of boxty for the supper’.
In Donegal, a reference is found to a dish called 'poundies', an equivalent of the Irish ‘brúitín’ from the verb ‘brúigh’ to press, pound, or to mash. One in particular claims it was made by mashing potatoes with onion, milk, salt and pepper, similar to champ or colcannon. This term only appears in Donegal within the Schools Collection, suggesting it is regional, although a debate in the Irish Times' letters page claims its use in other counties in Ireland, sometimes rendered as ‘pandy’. In other folkloric records, rice pudding, served sprinkled with raisins and melted butter, was the dish of choice to celebrate St Brigid’s Day.
The Biddy boys would collect eggs and money from house to house while drinking whiskey and porter, carrying the Brídeog with them
Food was also present in the tradition of the Brídeog and the Biddy boys. A type of doll, the Brídeog was fashioned using a turnip for the head, a churn staff for the body and flax for the hair. The Biddy boys (and girls) is a tradition similar to that of the mummers or the wren boys. This group, dressed in costume and travelling from house to house playing music and performing, would collect eggs and money, while drinking whiskey and porter, carrying the Brídeog with them.
Although many of the records in the Schools' Collection claim that this tradition had already died out in their localities, the recent revival of celebrations around St. Brigid’s Day offers a glimmer of hope of a revival. Biddy boys, performed by the Fingal Mummers, made an appearance in a St. Brigid’s Day festival in Clondalkin in 2023. Perhaps we can also reintroduce the feasting aspect on this St. Brigid’s Day across the country, celebrating with poundies, boxty, colcannon and champ, followed by a dessert of rice pudding served sprinkled with raisins and melted butter.
Caitríona Nic Philibín is a PhD student at the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. She is an Irish Research Council awardee. Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is a senior lecturer in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. He is the co-founder and chair of the biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
