The Feast of Bridget

The feast of Bridget or 'Feile Bridgde' was exhibited in Dublin in 1918, the year that Sean Keating was appointed assistant teacher at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. Just seven years before in 1911 Keating has attended the school by way of a scholarship from his native Limerick Technical School when he immediately came under the influence of the life school of William Orpen and became something of a protege. In 1914 he went to the Aran islands, having gone there with a fellow student Harry Clarke, and the discovery of these rugged islands off the West coast of Ireland was a turning-point in his life. The next year Keating was appointed assistant to Orpen in his London studio and in 1916 he was keen to return to Ireland with the aftermath of the Easter Rising and he tried to persuade Orpen to return with him but he remained to become a war artist.

St. Bridget is the female patron saint of Ireland and her feast day falls annually on the 1st February. She was born in 453 at Faughhart, Co. Louth the daughter of Dubtach, pagan Scottish king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by St. Patrick. Having as a girl heard St.Patrick preach, she set her heart on taking her vows and started her first convent with just seven nuns. She invented the double monastery, the monastery of Kildare on the river Liffey, being for both monks and nuns. She died on the 1st February 523 at Kildare and is buried in Downpatrick with St. Patrick and St. Columba. Her patronage also covers babies, blacksmiths, midwives, sailors and scholars, amongst others.