Brigid's Worlds Conference 2024, Kildare, Ireland

 

"Registration now open on Eventbrite for Brigid's Worlds, a conference exploring the life & times of St Brigid & her Church of Kildare (5th to the 9th centuries)! Sept 13th & 14th. We've an incredible couple of days planned! In person only. Loads of hospitality, tour of Kildare town/Cathedral, extra treats. Excited to welcome you all to Maynooth University. €10 per day but free public lecture by Prof. Catherine McKenna (Harvard), Ogham exhibition & reception Fri night. Full provisional programme, speakers and titles available on the Eventbrite page. You have to register for each day separately. Enquiries to niamh.wycherley@mu.ie” 

Niamh Wycherley

 

Register here with Eventbrite.

Image: Brigid's cross surrounded by text including “Brigid’s Worlds" and "Brigid 1500.”

Call for Submissions: Lady of the Forge: Stories and Art Dedicated to the Goddess Brigid

 

 

Girl God Books is accepting submissions for Lady of the Forge: Stories and Art Dedicated to the Goddess Brigid.

Edited by Isca Johnson, Pat Daly and Trista Hendren

Preface by Dr. Karen Ward

Cover Art by Barbara O'Meara 

Scheduled publication: Imbolc 2025

Submission Guidelines:

Please send your finished piece in a Word document. 2,500 word limit. Calibri size 12 font is preferred. Please do not use any fancy formatting or fonts as it creates more work on our end. Make sure to spell check before you submit. Art should be sent in high resolution as a JPG. You may submit more than one piece for consideration, but due to the volume of submissions, please only send your best work and keep it on topic.  

 

Please note that this anthology will be about Goddess Brigid. We will not be exploring Her later role as Saint in this collection. 

 

We do not accept work created with Artificial Intelligence. 

PLEASE SEND YOUR SUBMISSIONS TO SUBMISSIONS@GIRLGOD.ORG BY JULY 31, 2024 with the book title in your subject line. Please note that we cannot accommodate any late submissions or corrections.

 

Please also include a bio in the third person under 150 words.

Accepted contributors will receive a contributor's copy of the book and the option to order as many copies of the book as they'd like at cost during the pre-order period to sell or gift as they wish.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be the first to receive our Calls for Submissions.

You can find our other anthologies here.

Pre-order your copy here.
 

Note from Mael Brigde: although they don't specify it, poetry, prayers, essays, et cetera are all welcome.

 

Image: painting of red haired woman against a black background. Flames are shooting out of side of her head.

 

 

‘Brigit’s Living Traditions,’ Talk by Séamas Ó Cathain

 

Séamas Ó Cathain was invited by Woman Spirit Ireland to speak about Brigit at their symposium, Brigit of Ireland - An Icon for Today, and to launch the updated and extended second edition of his 1995 book, Festival of Brigit - Celtic Goddess and Holy Woman.* The talk was held on 28th January 2023.

Click here to read more about it and buy from the publisher, and here for his talk. 

Image: Photo of front cover of book, showing four children bundled in winter clothes, holding Brigit’s crosses and standing near a shrine.

* the original edition of the book is available on archive.org.

"St Brigid: Goddess or Saint?" from Treasure Ireland, Irish Dominicans

 

A Catholic perspective on Saint Brigit, “St Brigid: Goddess or Saint?”

“It's become common to say that St Brigid was an imagined figure, an unhistorical ‘saint’ modelled on an earlier pagan goddess. We visited St Brigid’s Well in Faughart, Co. Louth to delve into the evidence for the historical Brigid.”

Artwork: FRIZ (thisisfriz.com) 

Video: Patrick Grant 

Presenter: Conor McDonough OP

Brigit’s Butter, Right Over There in Ontari-ari-o!

 

I was thrilled to find this butter in my local store. I suspect it is only in Canada. Read more about it on their site.

"It'll somehow make you love butter more.

A commitment to the regeneration of our soils, the health of our communities, and animal welfare, drive our effort to produce this delicious butter.

 

"We are churning a better future for generations to come.

"Buy our Butters By The Case

(Ontario & Montreal Only)

 

"Buy from our Select Stockists

(Coast to Coast)"

"Discussion of St. Brigid’s Cross as a Complex Symbol,” a Paper by Junhan Zhang

Available as a free download from Francis Academic Press [1], “Discussion of St. Brigid’s Cross as a Complex Symbol,” by Junhan Zhang [2]:

“The discussion of St. Brigid’s cross as a complex symbol intends to illustrate the rich cultural implication of St. Brigid’s Cross. Beginning with St. Brigid and St. Brigid’s Day, the essay firstly introduces the importance of this day. Then it continues to demonstrate the strictly regulated process of making one proper St. Brigid’s cross, with some variations included. The straw, the main material to make crosses, has the implication of securing fertility, which is also noted in the essay. Types of cross are generally introduced with pictures for reference. At last, the cross’s cultural implications – to protect and to ensure fertility are addressed in detail.”

[1] Francis Academic Press is one of the world’s largest publishers of peer-reviewed, fully Open Access journals. Built on an ethos of openness, we are passionate about working with the global academic community to promote open scholarly research to the world. With the help of our academic Editors, based in institutions around the globe, we are able to focus on serving our authors while preserving robust publishing standards and editorial integrity.

[2] Published in International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2023), Vol. 5, Issue 6: 1-4.

Image: Display of types of St. Brigit’s crosses, Solas Bhríde. Photo by Mael Brigde.

"Brigid: A Woman, A Life, A Legacy” (a four part lecture series)

Mount St Anne’s in collaboration with Solas Bhride Centre, Kildare offer a Spring Online Course — 

“Brigid: A Woman, A Life, A Legacy”

This 4-week online course takes place each Wednesday evening for 7pm – 9pm (Irish time)

6th March: ST BRIGID AND HER FEAST DAY IN IRISH TRADITION (Bairbre Ní Fhloinn)
Dr Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, is recently retired as Associate Professor of Irish Folklore and Ethnology at UCD. She was Director of the MA in Irish Folklore and Ethnology in UCD, a programme she established. She has written widely on many aspects of Folklore and Ethnology.

13th March: THE SPIRIT OF ST. BRIGID IN OUR CONTEMPORARY WORLD (Rita Minehan)
Sr. Rita Minehan is a Brigidine Sister and founding member of Solas Bhride Spirituality Centre in Kildare. She is the author of Rekindling the Flame, a Pilgrimage in the footsteps of Brigid of Kildare.

20th March: DECODING ST. BRIGID (Eoghan Corry)
Eoghan Corry is the lead travel commentator in Ireland, as well as being a historian, author and broadcaster. Eoghan will draw on his historical background and his travel experience to present a picture of St. Brigid as a saint and demonstrate how her influence and relevance still echoes today.

27th March: ST BRIGID: THRESHOLD WOMAN TO JUSTICE AND COMPASSION (Doris Testa)
Dr Doris Testa is a Brigidine Sister located in Melbourne, Australia. Having a fifty year background in education and social work, she has taught at first and third levels, worked in Child Protection and Community Development. She has held positions of leadership within the Brigidine Victorian Province.

Cost:  Full Course €50

To book a place, please email secretary@mountstannes.com or phone 057-8626153

 

Last night I came home from my trip to Ireland, where I had important time with friends and Brigit, and presented devotional poetry, song, and meditation at the Brigid of Faughart Festival as part of Brigid 1500. It was for me a profound and nourishing trip. I didn’t go out into the yard last night and I was busy inside till I went out just now to cut my month old fingernails. And this is what I saw.

Brigit’s Surprise

Brat Bhride Project — Portarlington Art Collective

 

Brat Bhride Community Creativity Project - Bringing People Together to Learn and Celebrate Tradition Together.

Our initiative will promote a revival of the Brat Bhride tradition across Ireland at a community level, using our creativity. Brigid has been recognised and awarded her own national holiday for 2023 and we want to commemorate that in our way in Portarlingon. The Brat Bhride tradition will bridge a gap between the generations, with older members of our community aware of this almost forgotten tradition in today’s Ireland recalling her healing and protective shawl.

Our Collective, alongside community groups will be coming together to upcycle and customise Brat Bhride scarves/shawls and we welcome all community involvement, as once you can pick up a needle and thread you can take part. We will be reusing old scarves and found materials, promoting sustainability in recycling of materials. 

We intend to bring together our groups in a shared environment and workspace to create and collaborate on our Brat Bhrides and talk together about activities and memories traditionally associated with St Brigid’s Day.

For more information follow us on social and if you want to get involved get in touch at portartcollective@gmail.com.

 

Brat Bhride Community Creativity Project

in Conjunction with Creative Ireland and Offaly County Council - starting 20th April

Images: “mo bhrat Bríd” (my Brigit shawl) - Brat Bhride Project — Portarlington Art Collective

St. Brigid Island, Antarctica

 

Oстров Св. Бригита (Bulgarian for "the Island of St. Brigitta"), known in the English speaking world as St. Brigid's Island, is a small island of the Archipelago of Antarctica, that thin arm you see unfurling from the main body of the land mass. It is 2.7 km long and 1.4 km wide, and is the largest in the Barcroft group of Biscoe Islands. It is uninhabited, and its icy surface area is 222 ha. The internet sources I've consulted point out that it is named after St. Brigid of Kildare as patron saint of scholars.

The peregrinatio* of Ireland, medieval holy people who set off in oarless coracles to wherever God took them, might have found this island a bit too hostile for their purposes, but it is still inspiring to realise how far afield her followers went, taking her with them. Shall we organise a retreat here???

* Thus, peregrinus, a word originally meaning stranger, came to be interpreted as referring to a pilgrim or an exile. Among the Irish, peregrinatio, the journey of the peregrinus, described a life-long exile for the sake of God. "Exiles from the Edge? The Irish Contexts of Peregrinatio" by Elva Johnston. Research Repository UCD.

Sources: St. Brigid Island Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia; first map from Mapcarta, second and third from Apple Maps, final two from Kiddle.

"Brigid of Faughart Festival 2022” - Video

 

A full length video on Brigid, Goddess and Saint and her birthplace, Faughart, which is near Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland. It was shot at the Imbolc 2022 online event at the Brigid of Faughart Festival.

Video found on Brigid of Faughart Festival site, here.

Video credits: Steve Larkin

Guests at Brigid of Faughart Festival 2024

 

Artists & Guests 2024

"Old Life of St Brigit" (Bethu Brigte) translated by M.A. O’Brien

• See also Vitae or "Lives" of Saint Brigit: Great Places to Learn Lots About Her
• 
  

“This World and the Other – Magical Stories with the Saint and the Goddess, Brigit” - Reading & Meditation with Mael Brigde

 

 

[Sun Among Stars] reflects the long and deep journey that Mael Brigde has made with Brigit in her many guises … [Her] journey is a deeply embodied one, reflecting insights gleaned during her studies which have become a living part of her. She encourages readers/students to grasp this possibility for themselves as they engage with the material.
 
This work offers a portal into the mysteries of Brigit and the possibility of readers grounding her qualities of compassion, courage, love, wisdom and fearlessness in their own unique ways in their current lives.
 
Thank you for this important and comprehensive work.
 
Dolores T. Whelan, author of Ever Ancient, Ever New – Celtic Spirituality in the 21st Century, and co-founder of Brigid's Way Celtic Pilgrimage

(I stumbled across this endorsement for my book a couple of days ago. I had written Dolores asking for an endorsement when she didn’t know me at all, and I was blown away by her response. It was she who invited me to read at the festival — thus blowing me even further away than before. Thank you, Dolores!)

🔥

As mentioned, I will be in Dundalk, Ireland on 1 February, as part of the Brigid of Faughart Festival and Brigit 1500, reading and leading brief meditations.

I wrote much of A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars, because I wanted a book of poems and prayers to help me become grounded when I sat down to be with Brigit, something that would help me recall the connection I have with her and prompt me to contemplate the different sides of her. When I dip into the book, it is usually in such moments. I light a candle, meditate, offer songs and a poem or two.

I decided that this was the way I wanted to present them to the folk who gather with me in Dundalk. To start with a centering meditation, and to offer the stories of Brigit as part of a larger contemplation. I am even trying to rub some of the rust off of my voice box so I can sing the parts of the meditation I normally would in the privacy of my room.

If you are able to join us that night, you would be very welcome. Please feel free to say hello afterward.

🐦‍⬛ 

The event will be held at 6 PM at the County Museum on Jocelyn Street. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.

Venue: County Museum Dundalk 8 Jocelyn St, Townparks, Dundalk 54°00′17″N 6°23′49″W

Book: A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars by Mael Brigde

Image: festival banner with the words “Brigid of Faughart Festival - Celebrating Brigid, Celtic Goddess & Matron of Ireland.” On one end is a mandala of rings of water and fire and plants, with a four-armed Brigit’s cross in the centre and a white hand holding it up. On the right is a painting of a white woman, half goddess and half saint, with fire and water and other designs surrounding her.

💧

Walking the Bounds

On Boxing Day I went for a walk, walking the bounds, as it were. Seeing the land I live on, with its buildings and beings and ways. I found myself able to let go of superficial observations like, ‘oh, I like this yard' and 'I wish they weren’t building that house here,' and just stay with what is instead of what I might prefer it to be. It transfigured the place for me.

Still, I can’t help noticing what a thing of beauty this place is. I picked across bulldozed land to get to the park, where mallards drifted about the unexpected pond, a gift of this season of rain.

Dandelions lifted bright faces to the world. I thought of Brigit and looked around for the pollinators. Mostly, the dandelions had no visitors; a fly supped on one. 

Bliss. 🐦‍⬛

Image: Kim Rivers-Kirby on Unsplash

Brigid of Faughart Festival 2024 (and Lucky Mael Brigde Gets to Go!)

 

I am very happy to be returning to Ireland next month to participate in the Brigid of Faughart festival. I've never had the chance to go to a Brigit festival before, and to get to celebrate her with others on the 1500th anniversary of St. Brigit’s death is very special. Thank you so much to Dolores Whelan for inviting me.

Here is a little snippet about the festival:

From Brigid of Faughart, Facebook page

11h  · Dundalk, Ireland  · 
The 2024 Brigid of Faughart Festival will run from Thursday 1st February, Brigid's Day, until Monday 5th February-the new Irish Bank Holiday in Honour of St.Brigid. In this special year marking the 1500th anniversary of her death, the festival will celebrate with a range of wonderful events including Wisdom Talks with authors Dolores Whelan and Manchan Magan, Canadian Poet and author Mael Brigde, Cross & Crios Making, My Brat Bhride Project, Pilgrimage, Tours at Faughart, Ritual and Poetry. A new Brigid poem has been commissioned from poet Siobhan Mac Mahon which will appear on a building in Dundalk during the festival! Full programme and booking details will be available in early January. A very Happy and peaceful Christmas to all our friends from the festival team.
— St Brigid's Shrine

"History of St Brigid's Shoe with Christy Cunniffe” - Video

 A very short and very interesting look at the Saint Brigid's shoe shrine, from Galway County Heritage Office. Narrated by Christy Cunniffe.

Click here to watch. See also National Museum of Ireland’s "Online Pop Up Talk: St. Brigid's Shoe Shrine,” with Trisha Ryan, here.

Review: "Brigid of Kildare - A Full-Length Play” by Myla Lichtman-Fields

 

Review Myla Lichtman-Fields Brigid of Kildare - A Full-Length Play (2014)

 

This review has two parts, one covering the booklet containing the original script, and one of the radio performance, which differs from the original in important ways.

 

The booklet (original script):

 

Lichtman-Fields’s play is that rare beast among Brigidine fiction, a piece that, while written for one side of the religious divide or the other, in this case Christian, honours and respects and even celebrates to some degree the other religion, pre-Christian Irish paganism, or Druidism as she envisions it. A most welcome approach!

 

Lichtman-Fields has done a good job of looking through the lives of Saint Brigit and picking out important moments, then fleshing them out with dialogue and character.

 

BRIGID: Kildare’ll mark an important link between our Druid traditions and our new world. Here, my Sisters will keep a fire burning day and night to honor those who came before and to help light the way for those who come after us.

 

 pg. 60

 

This is pure Lichtman-Fields. There is nothing in the early Brigit literature about linking the two worlds.[1] But it is a lovely offering of a long-withheld olive branch between the two paths.

 

Make no mistake, though, this play will appeal in the main to Christians, particularly Catholics, who enjoy and appreciate the old genre of religious inspiration and education, hagiography – writings of saints’ lives which model the values, beliefs, and understanding of the world that are expected of a great Christian. 

 

Caveat Emptor! Let the Buyer Beware!

 

Just a note to encourage you to be aware that, with Brigit's increasing popularity, she has become a commodity. You will increasingly see items that are basically ripoffs, designed to make someone a quick buck rather than to communicate good information to devotees and scholars.

I just saw a post about the book depicted here and I was of course interested to learn more about it. I’ve never heard of the author, so I looked her up. I can't seem to find anything about her apart from what she's written on her Amazon page.

She's published a whole bunch of books on a whole bunch of deities, which, while not a condemnation in itself, does encourage caution. When a person is not intimate with a deity, when they are not researching in depth but are taking gleanings from everything that's already written about her in the popular sphere, there are likely to be even more inaccuracies than when we devotees write, and we make mistakes all the time.

I did a little more searching and discovered that the links to her website and Facebook profile are duds. She could be an AI. If anyone actually knows Nicole Muir, the author of this book, I would love to know more about her, and that she is a reliable author.

This post is not meant to tell you not to read this book or any other book by someone who's written a lot of books. Morgan Daimler is an example of someone who has written lots of books about different deities but actually does great research. *But* they are also all over the net. It's easy to find out who they are and what people think of them.

The person reading this book was enjoying it. There are exercises or meditations in it to help you connect with the goddess. If she's getting something out of them then that is great. Information does not have to be accurate for us to find benefit from it in our contemplations. But if we are using it to build a picture of the goddess, we're going to want to have solid facts behind it as much as possible and not just hearsay.

Caveat emptor!

Let the buyer beware!

PS: I’m getting very good confirmation of my fears on the original post (my profile page), some of which I am adding below.

 

DR: 

I too think this is highly suspicious. I keep hearing more and more about AI generated books that are total scams. She has no website, no Amazon reviews, her FB page looks fake with hardly any followers. It has only one review (which also looks suspicious). Her image returned zero hits using TinEye and only two on Google Reverse Image Search (for two similar looking women from a California Psychics website, so not sure if it is her). The length of the books also make me think these are AI, along with their publication dates (and lack of reviews).

 

HW:

Sadly there are a few out there cashing in on the pagan and spiritual community/newly curious with a smorgasbord of AI books on more topics than one human could decently write a book on.

 

BE:

what author? Mari Silva? I bought that one unfortunately

 

MB:

I'm usually very good at being able to find information about people and things online. For this author, I can't find anything. It also doesn't help that the books are independently published, so there's no publisher to check and ask, too. I would also be very wary of this author as well. I know Amazon recently implemented a new policy against AI-generated content, but there's almost no way to tell if something is written by AI. And like John Beckett says: if they publish more books than Morgan Daimler and have no reliable online presence, be wary!

MD:

I took at a look at the free sample on Kindle. I don't think it's AI but more likely content farmed/ghost written.

It's not terribly written but it's devoid of real content - wiki is a better source and that's saying something. 

I also checked "her" book on Freya and it's the same - smooth text that says little to nothing.

 

Images: Book cover and Canva elements combined by Mael Brigde. Images of Nichole Muir found online by DR.