St Brigid's Day events around Ireland
Around Ireland, a range of community-based events organised by local authorities and cultural institutions are taking place to mark St Brigid's Day.
County Councils in Galway, Kerry, Louth, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary and Kildare are hosting festivals, performances, workshops, lectures and light shows.
Kildare County Council, in particular, has planned a programme of events celebrating its unique links with St Brigid.
Our National Cultural Institutions have organised an exciting programme of events to take place over the long weekend. These are listed here:
Chester Beatty
The Chester Beatty is presenting its Annual Lecture 2023 in celebration of St Brigid’s Day.
Dr Sara Parks will present Fragments: Lost Stories of Ancient Women on Wednesday, 8 February 2023 at 6pm.
Dr Parks will join online from Nova Scotia, Canada where she is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, St Francis Xavier University.
Crawford Art Gallery
The gallery will present a special St Brigid's Day tour of the collection on Monday, 6 February 2023 exploring the theme of women, nature and mythology.
Some works which may be feature are mythology-themed works and female figures such as the Venus de Milo from the Sculpture Galleries.
The tour will also include Regina Carbayo's portrait of Kate O'Brien.
Dublin City Council
Brigit: Dublin City Celebrating Women returns from 1 February – 6 February.
Brought to you by Dublin City Council, this city-wide celebration inspired by the Celtic goddess Brigit honours the contributions and achievements of women through the ages, promoting their immense contribution to our society, and welcoming the beginning of Spring.
Discover inspiring tours, insightful talks, workshops, exhibitions, mesmerising performances, and more.
>> Visit https://dublin.ie/brigit to view the full programme of events and stay in touch on social media @Brigit_Dublin #BrigitDublin
EPIC
Spring Around the World Workshop 1 February
Discover how the Irish celebrate spring around the world in this fun and creative craft workshop suitable for Primary School students.
Learn all about the Irish traditions of St. Brigid’s day, such as making nature tables and Brigid’s crosses, before exploring how other cultures welcome in spring – from the Holi festival of colour to the Chinese Lantern festival.
Using your imagination, travel from the past to the present, and explore the practices of the ancient Celts alongside the present-day celebration of powerful women that spring in Ireland has become.
As part of this workshop, you will create a range of colourful craft items to welcome in spring, from Irish Brigid’s crosses to Polish Marzanna dolls.
Brigid’s Stories 6 February
Come meet Irish saint and Celtic goddess Brigid as she weaves you a tale about incredible women from Irish history.
Discover the stories of pirates, pilots, mountaineers and poets. This is an interactive storytelling session utilising historical re-enactment and imaginative storytelling to bring to life stories from Irish history.
Suitable for families with children aged 6 and under, this drop-in session is included as part of your EPIC ticket. Get ready to help bring the story to life by moving, engaging and acting together!
Brigid’s Brideogs 6 February
Explore the customs of Spring Around the World in this workshop where you can create your very own Brideog doll.
Irish emigrants took their beliefs and culture with them and adapted them to suit their new home countries as they travelled around the world.
Learn about why the Irish made Brideogs, what they did with them, and how this relates to other similar customs around the world all while you craft a Brideog to take home with you.
You can create a doll of Brigid, one of yourself, or one of another inspirational woman in your life - or perhaps you'll be inspired by one of the other traditions you hear about!
This workshop is suitable for children 6+ and adults of all ages. Come along, get messy and have a bit of fun as you get hands on with history and learn about the past through craft!
Common Threads
Department’s Common Threads project invited textile artists from around the world to contribute unique individual artworks, which were then assembled by the Irish Patchwork Society. The final artwork is on display at EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin. Brigid’s legendary cloak is often depicted as a patchwork of colours and materials, reflecting the diversity and inclusivity of Brigid’s values and work.
Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Hamilton Gallery, Sligo presents ‘St Brigids Well’, an exhibition of contemporary art works by 97 Irish women artists.
The exhibition is themed around a specially commissioned poem by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin as part of Lá Fhéile Bríde 2022. ‘St. Brigid’s Well’ 2023 will combine paintings from 2022 with artworks by newly invited artists.
>> View the images from the St. Brigid’s Well exhibition and interview of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin by Susan MacKay in 2022
Hamilton Gallery, Sligo will also hold a live stream on Instagram of actor Chakra O’Connor reading the poem St. Brigid’s Well by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Aosdána, at 12 noon on Wednesday, 1February.
This poem was commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs as part of the Brigid’s Day celebrations.
Irish Museum of Modern Art
On 10 February IMMA will present Irish Gothic, a major retrospective by one of Ireland’s most accomplished artists, Patricia Hurl.
Greatly admired by her peers, but overlooked for decades, this is Hurl’s first significant exhibition and will present work spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career. Hurl’s work traverses the disciplines of painting, multi-media and collaborative art practice.
The exhibition includes more than 80 works developed over 40 years and the work’s primary subject matter is the lived experiences of women.
Using painting, performance, film, textiles and her own body, Hurl explores the hardship faced by mothers, sisters and friends: women warriors affected by horrific acts and often powerless to ease the suffering of loved ones.
This is the first in a series of solo exhibitions at IMMA focusing on Irish and international women artists throughout the year which includes:
- Sarah Pierce
- Jo Bear
- Howardena Pindell
- Anne Madden.
'A Concert for Brigid 1500’ featuring Eimear Quinn
Kildare County Council and the Brigid 1500 programme are delighted to host a concert with renowned Irish Soprano Eimear Quinn and guests in St. Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare Town on Sunday, 5 February at 7pm.
Brigid’s legacy is enduring and far-reaching and it means many things to many people. This concert is a celebration of Brigid’s legacy across Ireland, Europe and the wider world.
Her story has become centrally connected to Irish emigration. Please join us via live stream https://vimeo.com/event/2839011 and www.Brigid1500.ie , from wherever in the world you may be to celebrate St. Brigid; the Woman, the Life and the Legacy.
National Concert Hall
For St Brigid's Day the NCH will present Rebel Irishwomen featuring:
- Helena Moloney
- Kathleen Behan
- Maud Gonne with landless
- Niamh Bury
- Dr Mary McAuliffe.
This will take place in the John Field Room 5 February at 3pm.
Rebel Irishwomen, the 1966 Claddagh Records release, brought listeners into the personal experiences, recollections and songs of three women who were particularly associated with the 1916 Rising.
As Cathal Ó Seanáin wrote in the sleeve notes at the time, Helena Molony, Maud Gonne McBride and Kathleen Behan, were ‘among the militant nationalists’ who were passionate about Irish independence.
Celebrating this landmark recording, this event sees the songs reinterpreted by artists Niamh Bury and the female vocal group Landless, with historian Dr Mary McAuliffe.
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland will open the exhibition St Dymphna. The Tragedy of an Irish Princess at 6.15pm Friday, 27 January 2023.
In 2016, the Phoebus Foundation in Belgium undertook a large-scale restoration project focusing on an altarpiece triptych in their collection by Goossen van der Weyden (1455-1543). Dymphna - a legendary 6th or 7th century Irish saint was the daughter of a Celtic king.
The Church of St Dymphna in Geel, consecrated in 1247, still holds relics associated with the saint. The altarpiece featuring scenes from the life of St Dymphna is the only work of its kind to focus on the life of an Irish saint.
National Museum of Ireland
Country Life in Turlough Park will present A celebration of all things St Brigid, a series of online and onsite events for St Brigid's Day on Saturday, 28 January that will focus on the traditions, and oral histories associated with St Brigid. The day will include a number of family workshops and talks as well as a display of St Brigid's crosses.
‘Bonnets, Bandoliers and Ballot Papers’ is a virtual tour of the NMI collections which focuses on how women’s roles began to change in the late 19th/early 20th Century in Ireland, looking at political campaigns, protest and social change within Irish society, and the experiences of women through domestic life, war and rebellion in Ireland.
A number of objects will be presented including:
- Examples of women’s dress as part of the Celtic Revival.
- A ‘Votes for Women’ badge worn by Francis Sheehy Skeffington at his death in Portobello Barracks during the 1916 Easter Rising.
- The lectern used by Hanna Sheehy Skeffington in meetings all over Ireland in the early 20th Century as part of the Irish Women's Franchise League campaigns.
Royal Irish Academy
The RIA are hosting a Women in Leadership Book Launch: Work Life - Lessons from leaders by Claire O'Connell at 6pm Wednesday, 1 February.
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