Now it's St. Brigid's Day and the first snowdrop
In County Wicklow, and this is a Brigid's Girdle
I'm plaiting for you, an airy fairy hoop
(Like one of those old crinolines they'd trindle),

Twisted straw that's lifted in a circle
To handsel and to heal, a rite of spring
As strange and lightsome and traditional
As the motions you go through going through the thing .

From St Brigid's Girdle by Séamus Heaney.

Happy St Brigid's Day from the rocky Burren in the wild west of Ireland on the 1st of February 2016. I say "wild" as outside Storm Henry is raging. Henry is our 8th named storm this winter. Wind speeds will reach up to 128 kilometres per hour on the west coast of Ireland. There is an orange weather warning in place until this evening. Even temperate Ireland is no longer exempt from the extreme weather events affecting the planet. According to Met Eireann, the Irish Meteorological Service, December 2015 was the warmest and wettest December ever recorded at most of its weather stations.

The 1st of February was the start day of the New Year in ancient Ireland and thus one of the four great pre-Christian agrarian festivals in the calendar. The festival was called Imbolc - meaning literally in the womb. Imbolc was a major turning point in the agricultural and spiritual year - a time of birth and re-birth.

Imbolc has long since been Christianised through the figure of Saint Brigid. Paradoxically there may be no historical basis for Brigid as she was almost certainly a pagan goddess. She is known as Mary of the Gael and is one of the three major figures in the canon of Irish saints along with Patrick and Colmcille. Her feast is still celebrated in many parts of Ireland today - testimony to the remarkable tenacity of tradition.

Liscannor is a small coastal village about ten miles west us here in Killinaboy. Each 1st February St Brigid's festival is celebrated in Liscannor with a mass at the local holy well which is dedicated to Brigid. The mass is read by the forward-thing local priest , Denis Crosby. A small number of the rituals performed during the ceremony are quite secular and are highly unusual in the context of a Roman Catholic mass.

Both the St Brigid's cross (rush) and St Brigid's girdle (a straw hoop) can be seen in these archive images of St Brigid's Day at Liscannor. The swastika-like cross is hung up in the house (and less commonly outhouse) in the belief that it acts as protection against the onset of illness and misfortune in the case of not just people but livestock also.
People step through the straw hoop in order to get Brigid's blessing and to be reborn to good health for the new year.

Renowned singer-songwriter, Luka Bloom, has been domiciled in Liscannor for the last three years. He has chosen today, St Brigid's Day, as the launch day of his 21st recording entitled Frugalisto www.lukabloom.com

An excellent documentary on Brigid was screened yesterday evening on the Irish language TV station TG4
http://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/baile/?pid=4730382145001
The programme is in Irish with English sub titles.

As for Henry, he may well upstage Brigid today in idle chatter around these parts......as we stutter through the wildest winter in living memory. Lá Fhéile Bhríde Shona duit. Happy St Brigid's Day to you!