The festival of Iombolg and Saint Brigit’s Day
Kilbride/Cill Bhríde “the church of Bríd/Brigit”
(see logainm.ie #2554)
Date: 26/01/2026
In recent years much media attention has been given to the ancient Irish festival Iombolg (< Old Irish Imbolc), formerly celebrated on the first day of spring (see eDIL s.v. imbolc, óimelc). Before this latter-day renaissance, however, the word Iombolg had practically disappeared from the spoken language: it is not very well attested even in earlier sources and it is hardly found at all in later texts. The probable reason for this is that the pagan Iombolg had been comprehensively replaced at an early date by the new Christian festival devoted to Bríd (< Early Modern Irish Brighid < Old Irish Brigit), still celebrated as Lá Fhéile Bríde/Saint Brigit’s Day.
To complicate matters, however, Bríd (OIr. Brigit) was also the name of a goddess in pre-Christian Irish culture. It is likely, therefore, that many of the sites apparently named after Saint Brigit were originally dedicated to her pagan predecessor. The extent to which any direct replacement occurred is difficult to quantify at this remove, but it is notable that examples of Kilbride/Cill Bhríde “the church of Bríd/Brigit” as a townland or parish name commemorating Bríd (see logainm.ie) are almost twice as common as examples of Kilpatrick/Cill Phádraig “the church of Pádraig/Patrick” commemorating Ireland’s patron saint Pádraig/Patrick (see logainm.ie). It seems likely that the preponderance of dedications to Bríd might be due at least in part to the new Christian sect’s appropriation of pre-existing holy sites.
(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)