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 history of Ireland down through the ages, as the armies of local chieftains and foreign invaders made their way from south to north through Faughart and on into the Gap of the North.