Kilgobnet Biddies: Kerry parish's unique way of celebrating St Brigid's Day
The Kilgobnet Biddies, practising at Kilgobnet National School. Picture: Valerie O'Sullivan
We live in modern times, a digital age where sending Christmas cards, calling into your neighbour for a bowl of sugar or phoning someone’s landline are slowly becoming obsolete.
And yet in the small townland of Kilgobnet, near Killorglin in Kerry, an ancient tradition continues to honour St Brigid.
A group dressed in all white, known as the Kilgobnet Biddies, spend four nights calling into people’s homes to sing and dance in honour of the saint and the pagan goddess, and to mark the start of spring.
So old and unique is the ancient Kerry custom that no one is quite sure when it started, but the elders of the area remember the tradition from when they were children.
“As far back as I can remember the Biddy tradition has been very strong in Kilgobnet and in Kerry. I don’t know how it’s so strong and why it’s so strong down here,” says Maura O’Connor, a member of the Kilgobnet Biddies and principal of Killorglin national school.
Similar to the Wren Boys on St Stephen’s Day — although its origins are not rooted in the killing and hunting of a bird, or the rissole (fried potato cake) of Wexford — the tradition is known locally as “going on the Biddy”.
What exactly does it entail? Just fresh from four nights “on the Biddy”, Maura explains what it would be like if there were to be a knock on your door on February 1.
“We gather together and we are dressed in white and we wear straw hats, and we have ribbons on the sides of our shirt and pants. Our colours are red and green but different Biddies [in other parishes] have different colours within their area.
“A local man, Mike Coffey, he makes the straw hats and the crosses. He has years of experience with the Biddy,” says Maura.
Once dressed the group of about 30 people set off with a sign and some musical instruments for their evening of house calls, heralding the arrival of spring.
“We have a sign with the Kilgobnet Biddy written on it and that goes at the top of the group and when we knock on a door Mike asks: ‘Have you any objection to the Biddy’ or ‘would you like a visit from the Biddy?’
“We’ve up to 30 in our group, with musicians, singers and dancers and we march into your house into whatever room you want.
“Then we do a half set or a full set,” said Maura.
The people of the home are invited to dance if they so wish. Songs sang include the Golden Jubilee, Red is the Rose, Galway Girl, and The Hills of Connemara.
Refreshments are shared and money is donated and on they march to the next house.
There are some rules to proceedings in that no house with a bereavement in the last year will be visited, or if there is a home with a sleeping baby, that will be avoided too.
There’s also a cut off point, no house will be visited after 9pm or 9.30pm.
“We go out the four nights leading up to St Brigid’s Day, on February 1," said Maura, who said they cover the Kilgobnet area as well as Beaufort and Killorglin.
In terms of funds raised, this year’s Biddy is looking to raise money for a community playground on the grounds of Killorglin national school.
The tradition was revived in 2011, as a way to raise funds for the school, but locals in the area have a strong memory of the Biddy and Biddy competitions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Maura feels that custom is rooted more in nature and local tradition than in religion.
“We’re honouring St Brigid but it’s more to do with the tradition than religion.
“It’s about welcoming the spring and bringing in the light of spring and she protects the animals and the land, and we are a farming community,” says Maura.
“People love to see us coming, for the community and the connection. It’s something to look forward to in January,” she adds.
While utterly unique to mid-Kerry, yet celebrating a national figure, many outside the area see the tradition as fascinating. But it’s just the norm to the people of Kilgobnet and Killorglin.
“It’s so ordinary to us,” says Maura.
