Joyce Fegan: The story of Brigid and Patrick is one of patriarchy on this land

While we reserved podium position for Patrick all these years, Brigid didn’t even make it to qualifying. But that’s more to do with patriarchy than meritocracy

 Brigid by Jef O'Riordan projected onto St. Nicholas church in Galway. Picture: Steve O'Connor.

All this talk of Brigid. We’re used to her day being February 1, the start of spring, the crosses, and now this year things have ramped up, there’s more chat about her than usual. They’re going on about whether she was a saint, was she even canonised, was she a goddess maybe, what even is a goddess, was she an Irish goddess though? Some people are even questioning whether the woman existed at all.

All that doubt and confusion and they’ve only gone and made a second day, a public holiday, this Monday, in her honour.