{"id":276323,"date":"2026-02-02T03:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276323\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T03:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:44:10","slug":"rain-clouds-part-for-st-brigid-as-fifth-annual-parade-winds-its-way-through-dublin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/276323\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain clouds part for St Brigid as fifth annual parade winds its way through Dublin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather gods were finally looking down on Dublin <\/a>on Sunday as the capital celebrated the patroness saint of Ireland, St Brigid<\/a>, and the official beginning of spring. <\/p>\n

The rain took a welcome and much needed pause as hundreds of people lined the streets of the north inner city for the \u201cBrigit\u201d parade. <\/p>\n

Now in its fifth year, the event, which included Irish dancers, rollerskaters, women\u2019s groups and local schoolchildren, travelled from Capel Street down Henry Street and finished at the Spire on O\u2019Connell Street. <\/p>\n

Among those taking part was the Sliabh na mBan Brigid\u2019s Cloak group, with the women from Clonmel, Co Tipperary designing and making textile patches for a large cloak that was carried along the route. <\/p>\n

Theresia Guschlbauer, who conceived the project three years ago, said the cloak included an extended train made by 50 Italian women from Florence. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really Brigid coming to life; we are creating our own incarnation of Brigid for the Tipperary area,\u201d she said. \u201cI would see her as the patron saint of biodiversity, because biodiversity is rejuvenation, fertility, wellbeing, creativity, all the things that produce life and which we badly need to nurture. A culture that nurtures women and people that are vulnerable is very important for society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA performer takes part in the St Brigid\u2019s Day parade in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Also taking part were pupils and parents from St Brigid\u2019s Primary School, the Coombe, Dublin 8 who had designed a large cloak with their own artwork. <\/p>\n

Cathy Mooney, from the Coombe, was joined by her daughter Cara (11), who is in sixth class. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0St Brigid: \u2018There\u2019s so much more to her than I\u2019d ever realised\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually went to the school, a lot of my family did too, nieces and nephews and my own children,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cUp until a couple of years ago, it was an all-girls school from second class upwards. It has changed now, but it\u2019s important to show our girls that St Brigid was a woman who wasn\u2019t afraid to ask for what she wanted off somebody in power and she went and got it. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a leader, a helpful person, her helpfulness came from her inner strength and power and that\u2019s something we should be showing, especially to our girls.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PerformersPerformers at the St Brigid\u2019s Day parade in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw \"TheThe St Brigid\u2019s Day parade in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Ava Loran (22), an Irish dancer with the High Kicks group from Co Westmeath, said this was the first year they had participated. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually delighted to take part in something like this. It is quite a new parade so it\u2019s great to take in all the culture around us,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be trying to show off as much traditional Irish dancing as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0St Brigid\u2019s Day: who was she, why do we celebrate her and did she perform miracles?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam, who was there with his family, said it was \u201ca wonderful festival\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to look at the crowd and atmosphere on Capel Street today. It\u2019s great to see so many people out celebrating St Brigid, celebrating Dublin women and Irish women. It\u2019s another great addition to the holiday calendar here in Dublin,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s great is the colour and the carnival atmosphere here. It\u2019s a growing festival, it might be a while before it matches the scale of St Patrick\u2019s Day but it\u2019s certainly heading in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The weather gods were finally looking down on Dublin on Sunday as the capital celebrated the patroness saint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,61,60,43,116949],"class_list":["post-276323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-st-brigid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}