Yearly Archives: 2021

Read more about the article Brigid of Faughart Mural

Brigid of Faughart Mural

We were thrilled to be involved in the development of the new Brigid of Faughart Mural created in Bridge Street, Dundalk as part of the SEEK Visual Arts Festival in August 2020. The mural was created by the wonderfully talented artist Friz, who is based in Belfast and who managed to incorporate so many aspects of Brigid as both Christian Saint and Pre-Christian Goddess in this exciting new artwork. The mural is located in Bridge Street in Dundalk, which is the street that local people would have passed along, when walking out to Faughart for the annual St.Brigid's Day celebrations - a very fitting location indeed. We wish to thank all involved in organising the fantastic SEEK art…

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Read more about the article On the Week Before the Brigidine Festival by Brid McDonnell

On the Week Before the Brigidine Festival by Brid McDonnell

On the Week before the Brigidine Festival. Brigid, my namesake, how I wonder about you, The all-embracing goddess and the saint. What is it about you that is burning bright again, After millennia of continuous flame. Unforgettable your lasting love, your poverty, your healing. Bristling through place, space, time immemorial. As you initiate your monastery forward When you cover your cloak over fertile land. Matriarch in the stars, Primordial as Mary As you wet nursed her child. Mary of the Gael Where do you lie? With us and on high. The people’s person Vastly beyond Saint Brigid, Although she you once were. I adore you with your cross As girl, as mother, as cailleach. Whoever you were, Whoever…

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Read more about the article Guided Walk – Exploring the Sacred Sites of Faughart with Pat O’Rourke……(Starting point St.Brigids Shrine A91 Y771)

Guided Walk – Exploring the Sacred Sites of Faughart with Pat O’Rourke……(Starting point St.Brigids Shrine A91 Y771)

Local historian and longtime friend of the Festival, Pat O’Rourke, guides us around the sacred sites of Faughart, from St.Brigid’s Shrine A91 Y771 and the Healing Stones, to the ancient Hill of Faughart, Brigid’s Well and Old Faughart Graveyard. (half a mile away)From the Hill of Faughart one can look south across to Dundalk Bay, eastwards to the Cooley Mountains and back to the famous Gap of the North and the mighty form of Slieve Gullion. All these locations are steeped in myth and folklore, playing a major role in the epic story of the Táin Bo Cúlaigne, where the hero Cuchulainn defended Ulster against the armies of Queen Maeve. Faughart played a strategic role in the military…

Continue ReadingGuided Walk – Exploring the Sacred Sites of Faughart with Pat O’Rourke……(Starting point St.Brigids Shrine A91 Y771)
Read more about the article Festival Newsletter for Imbolc 2021

Festival Newsletter for Imbolc 2021

Greetings from Faughart (near Dundalk) regarded as the birthplace of Brigid in her Celtic Christian form 425 CE. However, Brigid has been a part of the spiritual landscape of this island for much longer. Brigid in her many forms over the millennium is associated with many places in Ireland...especially Faughart her birthplace and Kildare the site of her abbey. Brigid is a pre-Christian, pre-Celtic Goddess who embodies different energetic forms, maiden mother and Cailleach, at different times in the year. Brigid represents the Divine feminine within the many spiritual traditions that have evolved in Ireland over the many millennia. At Imbolc we celebrate the young vibrant Brigid who blazes through the land releasing it from winter sleep and…

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