📖 Ancient Restoration

"If i was willing to serve Mass, it was in memory of my ancestors standing around a rock, in a lonely glen, for fear of the landlords and their yeomen" - Brendan Behan

"Marriages in early Ireland tended to be concentrated between Twelfth Night (5 Jan) and Shrove Tuesday.." The links between the Imbolc spring festival, birth and marriage -

In medieval Ireland winter and spring comprised the quieter half of the year. During the cold months war-making ceased and the people took to housing and feeding the warrior-bands. Great effort was made to ensure a varied diet by hunting, fishing and preserving.

An Irish legend tells of how St Brigid aided the Virgin Mary in presenting Jesus at the temple by distracting the crowd with a headdress bearing many lighted candles. In gratitude, Mary decreed that a feast day honouring Brigid should take place a day before…

The name Brigid comes from Brigantes ('the people of the goddess Brigid') - a Celtic tribe that inhabited Iron Age Britain. Later the Brigantes settled Leinster, suggesting these peoples introduced Brigid as a chief deity to Ireland.

The sacred fire Solas Bhride ('the Light of Brigid') re-lit in 1993 by the Brigidine Sisters, Co Kildare. Each St. Brigid's Day the town hosts a week-long celebration in honour of their saint founder.

The name Brigid comes from Brigantes ('the people of the goddess Brigid') - a Celtic tribe that inhabited Iron Age Britain. Later the Brigantes settled Leinster, suggesting these peoples introduced Brigid as a chief deity to Ireland.

The design of the St Brigid's cross has similarities with the swastika, an ancient motif used on Celtic carvings. The central cross pattern also resembles the lozenge shapes found on Irish megalithic stones, a fertility symbol. https://bit.ly/2GBO7Lf

"O Glorious St. Brigid, Mother of the Churches of Erin, patroness of our missionary race.." - Prayer to St Brigid asking her to protect the Irish people, 1902.

This day 47 years ago – 30 January 1972 - the British Army shot 28 people, 14 of whom died, in Derry city, after an anti-internment protest march. All were male, aged between 17 and 59. Irish minister Patrick Hillery said, “From now on my aim is to get Britain out of Ireland.” All chimerical of course.

#OnThisDay 1661 The dead body of Oliver Cromwell, whose actions in Ireland are infamous, was dragged through the streets & three years after his death ritually executed again in London. His head was placed on a 6 metre tall spike above Westminster Hall. Done on behalf of English Royalists it must be added.