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1. See the chapter ‘Epilogue’ in Rees, A and Rees, B: Celtic Heritage, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1978. Also Ford, P, The Poetry of Llywarch Hen, Los Angeles and Berkeley, 1974, pp 16-25. Back to text

2. Collingwood, R.G. and Wright, R.P. : The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, Oxford 1965 and also Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Back to text

3 Birkhan, H: Die Kelten, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissen schaften, Wien, 1997 Back to text

4. I am indebted to Eugene Markey of the County Museum, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan for the information, the book 'Knockbride: A History' and the picture. Back to text

5. Ó hÓgáin, D: Myth, Legend and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the Irish Folk Tradition, Ryan Publishing, London, 1990, pp 60-64  Back to text

6 Ó Riain, P: ‘Pagan Example and Christian Practice: A Reconsideration’ in Cultural identity and Cultural Integration: Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Edel, D., Four Courts Press, 1995 Back to text

Connolly, S: Cogitosus’s Life of Brigit in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 117, p.5-27 Back to text

8 Colgan, J: Triadis Thaumaturgae Acta, Louvain, 1647 Back to text

9 Printed with a translation in Three Middle-Irish Homilies, Calcutta, 1877 Back to text.

10 There are many different versions of Brigit’s name. Bríg is found here and in the Second Battle of Maigh Tuired. Brigit is the form used in the early texts for the goddess and the saint, although later texts used the form Brighid for the saint. I am using Brigit throughout here, except where it appears differently in quotations. Other versions are Brighde, Bríd, Bridget, Bride and Ffraid or Ffraed, in Wales. Back to text

11  In Bernard, J.H. and Atkinson, R, eds. The Irish Liber Hymnorum, Vol II, London, 1892, pp.37-46

  The poem continues:

May Brigid free us
past crowds of demons!
may she win for us
battles over every disease!


May she extirpate in us
the vices of our flesh,
she, the branch with blossoms,
the mother of Jesus!


The true-virgin, dear,
with vast pre-eminence,
may we be free, at all times,
along with my Saint of Leinster-folk!


One (of the two) pillars of the Kingdom,
along with Patrick the pre-eminent (as the other pillar);
the vestment beyond (even) splendid (vestments),
the royal Queen!


May they lie, after old age,
our bodies, in sackcloth;
(but) with her graces may she bedew us,
may she free us, Brigid!
  Brigit ever.

Brigitae per luadem Christum precamur

ut nos celeste regnum habere mereamur. Amen.”  Back to text

12  Giraldus Cambrensis: The History and Topography of Ireland, ed. John J. O'Meara, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books, 1982 Back to text

13  Baring-Gould, S and Fisher, J: The Lives of the British Saints, London 1907-1913, (4 vols), vol 1, p 285 Back to text

14 Parry-Williams, T.H: Canu Rhydd Cynnar p.353 90:11-12 Back to text

15  Ó hÓgáin, D: The Hero in Irish Folk History, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1985 p. 232 Back to text.

16  Dorothy A. Bray, ‘The Image of St. Brigit in the Early Irish Church’, Etudes Celtiques, 24 (1987), 209-15 Back to text

17  Coch, John and Carey, John: Celtic Heroic Age, Celtic Studies Publications, Malden, Mass. 1995 Back to text

18 Stokes, Whitley, trans: Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore, Facsimile Reprint Llanerch Books, Felinfach, 1995 pp 182-200 Back to text

19 Binchy, D.A: Bretha Crólige in Ériu 12, 1938 pp 1-77 Back to text

20 Ó Catháin, Séamus: The Festival of Brigit, DBA Publications, 1995, p 11. Back to text

21 Capra, Fritjof: The Turning Point, Flamingo, London, 1982. See also Capra, Fritjof: The Tao of Physics, Flamingo, 1988 Back to text

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