Online Brigit Festivals in Ireland

No one, I trust, would call COVID-19 a blessing. It has been a curse, and the brunt of it borne by those who could least afford to bear it. Like any event, however, it has brought small blessings in its wake. One of these has been the blossoming of live online connections, social, spiritual, artistic, health-related – it has been astonishing. For those with access to computers and the internet, doors have opened which could not have before. I only hope that some of these remain open when we "return to normal." Particularly for those who have not been well enough to attend outside events, or those who live in rural communities far from urban offerings, the opening up of online access has been life enhancing, to say the least.

                  

This year, for the first time, those of us normally unable to get to Ireland can go to Lá Fhéile Bhríde in Kildare, or to the Brigid of Faughart Festival in the Faughart and Dundalk area – or to portions of both, if we have the energy and the time, and in some cases, a bit of coin, as well. 

 

The Brigid of Faughart Festival has joined with An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk to host ‘Cruinniú Lá Fhéile Bhríde – Gathering Under Brigid’s Mantle.’ It will take place from 8 P.M. on 1 February 2021.

Lá Fhéile Bhríde is as usual put on by Solas Bhríde and Afri (Action from Ireland). It will take place in individual sessions from 12 A.M. 31 January to 6 February 2021.

The entire ‘Cruinniú Lá Fhéile Bhríde’ is €10. Kildare's Lá Fhéile Bhríde events are each separate. Some are free, some cost €11.53.

P.S.: Don't forget we also have the first annual St Brigid's Day Festival of Vancouver, Canada from Jan 31 - Feb 7, 2021. Online as well, of course.

Image: The weavers of Brigit's crosses are from the Solas Bhríde website.

News article: "Louth's Brigid of Faughart Festival is going online" by Michelle O'Keeffe, 25 Jan 2021.

Féile Bríde 2018: Light out of Darkness

Féile Bríde 2018: Light out of DarknessSaturday 3rd February 2018
Solas Bhríde, Kildare Town
Registration at 10.20am

"Life has given me many challenges, which I choose to take as opportunities to learn and grow. This is my choice. I learned this on death row. I chose life, health, forgiveness, and love. That choice saved me from bitterness and hatred that would have destroyed me from within. I have dedicated myself to an end to violence – in all its forms. This is the way I honour the lives that were sacrificed along the way. This is the way I give back to the universe. Love is the answer. Fear is the enemy. We must choose the world we want and work towards making it happen every day in our own lives."

These are the inspiring words of death row survivor, Sunny Jacobs, whose life reads like a Shakespearean tragedy, with injustice heaped upon further injustice, creating circumstances that would have crushed many people. An innocent woman wrongfully convicted of murder, her husband was executed, she lost other family members and she spent many years awaiting her own execution. But Sunny came shining through it all with dignity, strength, courage, compassion and hope. She is the perfectly encapsulation of this year’s Féile Bríde’s theme: ‘light out of darkness’.

Sunny and Peter Pringle, the last person to have been on death row in Ireland, have devoted themselves to promoting healing, peace and reconciliation. Together they have established The Sunny Centre – a sanctuary for others who suffer injustice, especially people who are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit and have spent time under sentence of death. We will hear their extraordinary stories at Féile Bríde this year.

Other speakers include the distinguished academic and activist Peadar Kirby, who plays a leading role in the Cloughjordan Eco-Village; UCC Professor Emeritus and life-long peace activist John Maguire; Hanny Van Geel of La Via Campesina, which promotes the rights of peasant communities around the world, and who describes herself as ‘rooted in farming’; and Rose Hogan who has a life-long commitment to agro-ecology and sustainable agriculture.

In a world marred by war and the woeful destruction of our exquisite planet, Féile Bríde is but one example of the many, many people and groups throughout our world who hope for and work towards a better future, a more just world and for the light to overcome the darkness.

And as the Spring birdsong heralds the end of another winter, we will also have music because, as Hans Christian Anderson said, “where words fail, music speaks”.

For more information, including the programme, go here: http://www.afri.ie/news-and-events/date-for-your-diary-feile-bride-2018/

Hymn to Brigit & Brigit Candle Cross-Stitch

The original version of this hymn is a prayer to God, not Brigit, collected by Alexander Carmichael in the Carmina Gadelica. I came across it in Esther de Waal's book on Celtic Christianity, Every Earthly Blessing, and was much moved by the text. In my efforts to memorize my modified version to use as a prayer on rising each morning, a tune began to attach itself to the phrases. I offer it to you now with a collection of images, mostly from old postcards and archival photos, but also including:

• images from the website of the Brigidine sisters of Australia
• hearth drawings by E. Estyn Evans
• the Solas Bhride hearth (photo by Erynn Laurie)
• Judy Chicago's Saint Bridget plate from The Dinner Party
• my own very humble clay crèche of Brigit, her cow, and the triple flame
• a Brigit candle cross-stitch design by Donna Amaral of the Daughters of the Flame
• a painting of a Renaissance woman blacksmith by Francesca Miller
• a photo of friends drumming around the fire in Haiti
• Mayra Gomez carrying Brigit's flame (from the AFRI website)
• a woman blacksmith in Sulawesi

I include Donna Amaral's cross-stitch pattern here. Please credit her wherever you may use it. Donna was an early and dedicated member of the Daughters of the Flame whose generosity and joy were a great inspiration and support to all who knew her. Her death was a great loss to us all.

I will kindle my fire (Brigit Song)

I will kindle my fire this morning

in the presence of Brigit and her holy women.
Brigit kindle in my heart within
a flame of love to my neighbour
to my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all
to the brave, to the knave, to the thrall.
Without malice, without jealousy
without envy, without fear
without terror of anyone under the sun.

For the original words, collected by Alexander Carmichael, see the Comment section below.

La Féile Bhríde--AFRI-Style

Action From Ireland (AFRI) has long had a close association with the Brigidine sisters at Solas Bhride in Kildare. Of themselves they say "Afri engages in development education in a world in which the gap between rich and poor continues to widen and in which war, violence and militarism continue to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of people".

It isn't surprising then that their colourful and passionate celebration of Brigit's feast day has a somewhat different slant than many. Embedded below is the three-minute video from their post that describes that day, "Impressions from Afri’s Féile Bríde 2012". (See if you can spot Sr. Mary Minehan in the ceremonies.)

When you have read that post, noodle around to the homepage and have a look at some of the projects AFRI has on the go.