2  This account points to a more ancient site where there may have been a temple of the goddess Brigit in which an eternal flame was tended by 19 priestesses and dedicated to women’s mysteries, forbidden to men. The power and veneration of the site is certainly attested to by the fact that the flame was kept alight for so many centuries. It was extinguished in 1220 by Bishop Henry of Dublin in an attempt to stamp out pre-Christian practises, and the abbess was raped and unable to continue in her role. However the flame was eventually relit and all continued as before until the Reformation of the 16th c when the flame was put out and the monastery destroyed. All that remained of the flame house next to St Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare was the foundations, until recently when it was rewalled to show where it had been. However, in 1993 Sister Mary Minehan of the Order of Brigidine Nuns (established in 1807) relit Brigit’s flame in Kildare. The name Kildare, or Cill Dara, means ‘Church of the Oak’ and this association of the site with the sacred oak of pagan Ireland is an important indication that there was once a pre-Christian sanctuary there. The many miracles St Brigit performs are reminiscent of those of Jesus. She turns water into ale and stones into salt; she makes a little food become enough to feed all the people present; she performs many healing miracles; she looks after and heals lepers and the poor, giving away her father’s wealth, even his sword. This accords with her divine status, in a sense raising her to the same level as the son of God - the goddess Brigit was, after all, the daughter of the father god, the Daghda. It is interesting to note that two of the miracles recount her turning water into ale - unlike Columba who turns water into wine - and there is one miracle in which she ensures enough ale for 17 churches even though there has been a dearth of corn and malt. Saint Brigit or Santes Ffraid who is commemorated in Wales in a 16th century cywydd (Welsh poem in a special metre) by Iorwerth Fynglwyd seems to be an amalgamation of several St Brigits - Brigit of Cill-Muine, Brigit of Kildare, the Swedish saint and a Brigit from Gwynedd in North Wales. In Wales, there was apparently a custom of ‘cwrw Sant Ffraid’ (St. Brigit’s Ale) mentioned in the Red Book of Asaph (‘quadam consuetudo vocata Corw Sanfrait)(13), and St Brigit’s Day in Wales is connected with ‘drink’ - “Digwyl san ffraid ydoedd fenaid i bydd parod pawb ai wirod.” (14) (St Brigit’s day it was, my soul, everyone will be ready with his drink.) Lady Gregory gives the following ‘Wishes of Brigit’ in which ale features: “I would wish a great lake of ale for the King of Kings; I would wish the family of Heaven to be drinking it through life and time.” “I would wish the men of Heaven in my own house; I would wish vessels of peace to be giving to them. I would wish vessels full of alms to be giving away; I would wish ridges of mercy for peacemaking. I would wish joy to be in their drinking; I would wish Jesus to be here among them.” Travelling in Ireland recently, I noticed several pubs in Co. Clare had Brigit’s crosses hanging behind the bar. It is interesting to connect this emphasis on ale with the folklore view of the Irish poet as someone who could not make a song when sober. Intoxication is connected with a state of being excited or elated beyond the normal and the imbibing of certain liquids is one way to achieve this. There may be an echo behind these folklore traditions of ancient Irish ideas that poetic skill was obtained by drinking or eating substances which contained imbas forosnai, knowledge which illuminates. Many ancient texts connect poets with the word meisce which can mean ‘in a mental ferment’ as well as ‘intoxicated’, and often describe them as being heated or having inflamed faces while composing.(15) But ale is also connected with the giving of kingship and more than one scholar has suggested that Brigit is a Christian version of Queen Medb of Connacht, whose name means ‘she who intoxicates’.(16) Brigit is said to have been born at Faughart which had associations with Medb (the Cooley Peninsula may be seen from the old hilltop graveyard at Faughart where there is a well dedicated to Brigit). Medb has mythic associations with the goddess of sovereignty; in the stories she has many lovers and it appears that sexual union with her confers kingship upon them. But also in the old Irish tales kingship is sometimes conferred by drinking dergfhlaith, red ale or red sovereignty (there is a pun on the Irish word for ale, laith, and sovereignty flaith) so it is possible that Brigit’s connection with ale points not only to her functions as a mother goddess of plenty and fertility and a goddess of poetry, but to her function as sovereignty goddess. It has been convincingly argued that the Welsh word for king, brenin, originally meant consort of the goddess *Briganti and that its first use was in reference to the male leaders of the Brigantes. The title occurs on a Continental Celtic coin (17) which depicts a veiled female head on one side and a bull with laurel crown on the other. The goddess of sovereignty very often has two guises - that of a hag and then when the young hero agrees to have sexual union with her, that of a beautiful young woman. There are tantalising traces of this dual nature in lore relating to Brigit. Lady Gregory says of the goddess Brigit that she had two faces, one that is young and comely and one that is old and terrible. In Scottish folklore Bride, the bringer of Spring, is closely associated with the hag, the Cailleach of the stark Winter, and some people assert that they are two sides of the same being. More than one of the lives of the saint describe an incident in which Brigit plucks out her own eye rather than marry - by this act making herself not only unattractive, but also haglike (although she is able to heal herself by using the waters of a well.) Although the Irish scholar Dáithi Ó hÓgáin asserts that this motif was borrowed from Continental hagiography about St Lucy, another saint connected with light, it is still interesting that it is associated with Brigit. We have looked at Brigit’s connection with fire and the sun, but she is also connected with water. Celtic goddesses are often connected with rivers and Brigit is no exception. The British goddess Brigantia of the Brigantes of northern Britain was linked with river and water cults and her name is also remembered in the Braint on Ynys Mo^n (Anglesey), the Brent in Middlesex and rivers in Munster in Ireland. Many sacred wells are dedicated to her and are still used and venerated today. At Faughart, her birthplace there is not only a well but also a sacred stream which now has the stations of the cross positioned along it. Click for picture. At Liscannor on the Burren a pilgrimage to the well used to be undertaken at Lughnasad, this has now moved to August 15th, (click for picture) and at Kildare there are two wells dedicated to her - one still very much in use, (click for picture) the other, by the side of the road, is rather neglected although a few rags on the trees behind it give evidence that it is still being visited. Click for picture.  Eyes were connected with both the sun and with water (the sun on and in water was seen as a powerful healing agent), and not surprisingly many wells had the reputation of curing eye problems. The preface to the hymn Brigit Be Bithmaith gives one of the suggested authors as Columcille and said that he composed it when he went over the sea and was caught in Breccan’s Cauldron, a dangerous expanse of water. It was to Brigit he turned, beseeching her that calm might come to him, thus acknowledging her superior power over that element. In the life in the Book of Lismore (18) a river rises up while two lepers, one haughty and one humble, are driving a cow she has given them across. Brigit herself may have caused the river to rise up and certainly, through her blessing, the humble leper is saved. Cogitosus gives a story in which she, (through God’s will and power, of course) diverts a river. The people of her weak tuath who had been forced by a strong and arrogant tuath to work on the most difficult stretch of road-building through a place where a river ran, found their work made easier when the river is miraculously moved. Another aspect of her power over water has already been mentioned in Gerald of Wales’ account of his visit to Kildare. He tells of the archer who blew on Brigit’s fire which was forbidden to men and then goes mad, running through the town blowing in the faces of people he met. After he is caught and bound he asks to be taken to water to satisfy his thirst but his mouth is so parched that he cannot stop drinking and dies by bursting in the middle. We are reminded of the cupbearers in the Second Battle of Maigh Tuired who also possess magical powers connected with water and use it against the enemy: “And you, cupbearers,” said Lugh, “what power?” “Not hard to say,” said the cupbearers, “We will bring a great thirst upon them, and they will not find drink to quench it.” Brigit is here able to use the destructive power of both fire and water. And having this power, she also has the ability to give protection against death by fire and water. The Genealogy of Bride from Scottish tradition refers to this ability of Bride to give protection from the threefold death described in early Irish literature. The Descent of Bride The genealogy of the holy maiden Bride, Radiant flame of gold, noble foster-mother of Christ. Bride daughter of Dugall the brown, Son of Aodh, son of Art, son of Conn, Son of Crearer, son of Cis, son of Carmac, son of Carruin. Every day and every night That I say the genealogy of Bride, I shall not be killed, I shall not be harried, I shall not be put in cell, I shall not be wounded, Neither shall Christ leave me forgotten. No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn me, No lake, no water, nor sea shall drown me, No arrow of fairy, nor dart of fay shall wound me, And I under the protection of my Holy Mary, And my gentle foster-mother is my beloved Bride.(My italics)   Brigit the Saint: Continued Brigit's Forge