The Prayer Room in February

For St Wolstan's part in this project, each TY class took on a special task.

Class Banba choose to take charge of decorating the Prayer Room for February.
Class Fodla set up and managed this blog.
Class Eiru wrote a prayer service to be used at St Bridid's Well on out trip there.

Below Roisin and Monique show us around the Prayer Room. The video is a bit dark because the lighting in the room is low in order to make our Prayer Room peaceful and serene. Roisin's dad made the well for us to celebrate St Brigid's day. Isn't it fabulous? Huge thanks to Roisin's dad.

The Day by Aoibheann and Kate

Aoibheann and Kate wrote this poem themselves to celebrate St Brigid's Day. Here they are reciting the poem for us. Hopefully the students from Brigidine College in Australia will be able to understand our accents!

Trip to Kildare

On Tuesday 7th February, all TYs took a trip to Kildare to learn about St. Bridgid. We visited St. Bridgid's Cathedral and two of St. Bridgid's Wells. It was a fun and educational day that we all enjoyed. 

Check out what we did here on Emma's blog and here on Rebekah's blog. Meg and Aoife had a great time too!

The Brigeog

The Brigeog

This is a doll that represents St Bridget. It is made with rushes/straw by girls on St. Brigids day. It was believed to bring good fortune.

The girls would bring the doll around from house to house and the women of the house would invite the girls in.

Roisin and Monique

The Brat Bride

The Brat Bhride (Brigid's mantle) is a piece of cloth.

Source

The cloth was placed on a window sill, fence or tree branch on the 31^st of January (the night before St. Brigid’s day). The belief was that during the night St. Bridget would bless the cloth. This cloth would be used for fertility and for curing illness throughout the year.

Roisin and Monique

Saint Bridget’s Poem

Meg, Aoibheann and Kate were in a group that were researching poems about and prayers to St Brigid. After researching they all decided to write their own poems. This is a poem that Meg wrote.

Saint Bridget’s Poem

By Meg Maguire

The first of February comes once a year

And with it comes a great big cheer.

Cheering for the Saint that is

Saint Bridget of Kildare, Ireland.

She longed for land to build a church

But money, oh, she had to search

And then upon a great field she stumbled

A cathedral here, she would be so humbled.

She begged the owner to show her love

And share his wealth of land above

He laughed and said ‘Throw your cloak’

‘Where it lands you may own’, he joked.

So Bridget threw her soft blue cloak

And to all surprise it began to grow

Grow and stretch far and wide

Till Bridget had enough land by her side.

The owner grunted but kept his deal

The land was Bridget’s on all appeal.

She built a church and today it stands

County Kildare on that same land.

Here is Meg reading her own poem

A Poem for St Bridget's Day

Aoibheann, Kate and Meg were in a group that were researching poems about and prayers to St Brigid. After researching they all decided to write their own poems. This is a poem that Aoibheann and Kate wrote together. 

The Day

By Aoibheann O’Farrell and Kate O’Neill

Once a year the day comes around

The reeds of the cross are tightly bound,

In the towns land of Kildare

There are parades and festivals everywhere,

The children play, laugh and cheer

They feel her holy presence near,

People tell stories and they spoke

They spoke of the woman in the cloak,

She spread her cloak across the land

Where now her church proudly stands,

She did this because she could not pay,

Yes, it is St.Brigid’s day!