Gift to women IRISH STARS HAIL ‘FEMINIST ICON’ BRIGID AHEAD OF NEW BANK HOL
“always part of her ken” growing up in Clondalkin, near St Brigid’s Well.
Kennedy (68), with her sister Deirdre Ní Chinnéide, co-wrote Journey to the Well: Connecting to Celtic Ways and Wisdom and is part of tonight’s RTE documentary on St Brigid.
She said: “As an Irishwoman St Brigid makes me feel very proud.
“She was a bishop and straddled the pagan, Celtic, and the Christian world. She has meaning for everybody.
“She was an iconic woman of great tradition and compassion, with a strong sense of social justice.
“Brigid has great associations with the church, which is a very male-dominated space. We take great pride in St Patrick as our patron saint, and this holiday gives recognition to the fact that there are two genders which have complimentary qualities.
“St Brigid has a very prominent place in our psyches, and she deserves to be honoured.”
The actress and presenter says: “I think Ireland has gone through many extraordinary and wonderful changes quite quickly, and Brigid is a link between a very modern Ireland and an Ireland of the past we recognise.
“I don’t find it an accident that it’s only now that we finally celebrate her and it’s the first public holiday named for a woman, an official recognition for any kind of woman and I think that represents the island of now.
“I think Brigid speaks to us now in a way that perhaps she couldn’t and wasn’t allowed to in a time before.
“Brigid in a way can honour not only our women, but what we lost through our subjugation of women.
“Brigid’s Day, Lá Fhéile Bríde, will be a day for intelligence and compassion for everyone.”
Finding Brigid airs tonight on RTE One at 10.15pm.
■■LONG before Christianity, Brigid was a pan-European Celtic goddess.
■■In Ireland, Brigid was one of the original goddesses of the Tuatha dé Danann - daughter of the High King Dagda and mother Morrigan.
■■Brigid is a triple goddess – the goddess of healing symbolised by the element of water, goddess of the alchemical force of fire, and goddess of poetry.
■■She is known as the Fiery Arrow, often shown with flames coming out of her head. This represents the primal feminine energy mixed with masculine energy.
■■She was centuries ahead of her time - a youth activist, feminist and environmentalist who championed rights of the poor and animals.
■■Legend has it her father wanted to marry her off, but devoted to a life of religion, she pulled out one of her eyes to destroy her beauty.
■■She co-founded an early Christian double monastery with monk Conleth in Kildare.