Now at spring’s awakening, short days are lengtheningand after St. Bridget’s Day. His song rising, he praised Achill’s eagle, Erne’s hawkand in beloved Mayo, young lambs, kids, foals,and little babies turning towards birth. Blind Raftery invoked Bridget, Ceres of the North,born into slavery at Faughart, near Dundalkto an Irish chieftain and a foreign slave. Why, of all small girls in so distant a century bornis she honoured still, in place-names, constant wells,new rushes plaited to protect hearth, home, and herd? Her poem was commissioned by Galway 2020 to mark the beginning of spring this St Bridget’s Day.

Source: The Irish Times February 01, 2020 06:00 UTC