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JEREMY:
Hello and welcome to a fresh episode kicking off a new season of Eat 
This podcast.

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I'm Jeremy Cherfas. All around the world, 
people celebrate important days with important foods.

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In this episode, I'm looking at one country, 
Ireland, and one day, Saint Brigid's Day,

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which, for reasons we'll hear, is usually celebrated the night before.

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CASTRÍONA:
So Saint Brigid's Day falls on the 1st of February, 
and it marks the first of the four quarter days of the Irish calendar

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year, and these days are significant in that they divide the year into 
seasons and they essentially inform agricultural work that should

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happen at that time of year. And actually we still go by that calendar 
in Ireland.

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So the 1st of February is the first of spring and still in Ireland, 
in spite of what the weather might be like.

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A nd so the other the other quarter days then are May day, 
the 1st of May,

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and that's the beginning of our summer in Ireland, 
and Lughnasa or August,

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which is the beginning of the harvest, 
and then Oíche Shamhna or Halloween,

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um, which marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the 
winter.

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JEREMY:
There are so many stories and legends associated with Saint Bridget, 
who's one of the three patron saints of Ireland.

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Not all of them have to do with food by any means, 
but a fair few do.

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And so to find out more, I turned to an expert.

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CASTRÍONA:
My name is Caitríona Nic Philibin , 
and I am a Research Ireland scholar and a PhD student in the

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Technological University of Dublin.

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I'm in my third year of my PhD. I'm a chef by trade, 
so my comfort zones are either in the kitchen or behind a screen

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reading these days. Y eah. And my research is based on food in 
folklore archives in Ireland.

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JEREMY:
And are all the quarter days celebrated the night before.

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Or is Saint Brigid special in that respect?

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CASTRÍONA:
S o all of the quarter days are celebrated the night before, 
and it's believed that on the eve of a quarter day that time is

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liminal. So there's kind of a a thinning of the space between the real 
world and the other world.

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A nd there you see a lot of, you see a lot of a juxtaposition between 
Ireland's kind of pagan past and Christianity in that,

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you know, we celebrate fairies, but then the poor souls or the old 
souls,

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and you see that at Saint Brigid's Day as well.

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JEREMY:
I've also heard that Saint Brigid's Day is called Imbolc.

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CASTRÍONA:
And there is some kind of controversy over what it means.

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I don't do my own research to kind of figure that out, 
but I suppose the most significant thing for me is that all of the

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different meanings all relate to food production.

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A nd so the one that I suppose that makes sense to me as a Gaelic 
speaker,

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an Irish speaker, is that it means in the belly, 
in bolc.

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Bolc is actually the Irish word for belly.

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And so it's related to the beginning of the lambing season.

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B ut there are also suggestions that it could be linked to milk or 
milking.

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And we see suggestions that it's specifically derived from ewe's milk,

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the word, the word imbolc. But again, 
there we see that connection to food and food production.

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JEREMY:
So what are the foods of of Saint Brigid?

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CASTRÍONA:
So we see lots of potatoes, unsurprisingly in Irish cuisine, 
and but also dairy.

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Dairy is really, really significant to Irish cuisine even before the 
introduction of the potato.

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And Brigid herself is also, was also considered to be a master brewer.

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And there is one miracle attributed to her that she turned a bathtub 
of water into beer,

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which sure would make her very popular.

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JEREMY:
And was Saint Brigid herself known as a cook?

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CASTRÍONA:
So not specifically as a cook, although there is one miracle 
attributed to her where she did cook.

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The miracle tells that she had some unexpected guests, 
a group of I think it was priests and their retinue,

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and she had no food. so she sent her servant to to get some food, 
and the servant came back with a seal,

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which apparently Bridget cooked so superbly that they had the best 
meal they had ever had in their lives.

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B ut more often we see miracles around kind of hospitality, 
which I suppose that one also could be linked to hospitality.

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But where Brigid creates food, where there was no food before for 
people,

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be they poor people or people who call on her.

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A nd then we also see miracles where she manages to convert people 
from paganism to Christianity again through the use of

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foodstuffs, milk i n this particular case, 
where she called on the house of a pagan and they had no food to offer

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her, but she was parched. So they gave her a drink of milk from the 
churn,

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and they poisoned it. Of course, Brigid knew that it was poisoned, 
so she made the cross on the drink with a piece of straw from the

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ground, and the drink was safe. And therefore the pagans, 
seeing her,

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her powers, were converted and became the best Christians in all of 
the parish.

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JEREMY:
And who was she? How much do you know about Saint Brigid herself?

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CASTRÍONA:
So my understanding of it is that the stories about Saint Brigid have 
changed,

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you know, throughout the course of history. B ut we know that she was 
born in Dundalk,

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County Louth, which is just a border county in Ireland between the 
Republic of Ireland and the north of Ireland in around 451 AD.

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And we know that her father wanted her to marry a rich man, 
but that she was very much dedicated to her beliefs.

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And really the stories about Brigid's kind of kindness, 
they start from when she was around a teenager.

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We also know that she established a monastery in County Kildare, 
and that is why Saint Brigid's Day is celebrated,

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you know, with some significance in County Kildare.

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But then after that, as you can imagine, 
as the long time has passed and the stories change,

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I suppose, to suit different circumstances.

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JEREMY:
And to celebrate Saint Brigid's Eve.

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Are there special dishes that are cooked specifically on that evening?

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CASTRÍONA:
Yeah. So my own work utilizes folklore archive, 
and that's where I get a lot of my information,

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or most of my information from . And what I have found is that they 
would make boxty to celebrate Saint Brigid's

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Eve. Boxty is a mixture of cooked mashed potato, 
grated raw potato and either buttermilk or egg,

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and it can be cooked on the pan and you sometimes see it referred to 
as boxty pancakes.

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Or it can be boiled as a dumpling and that would be served with melted 
butter and sugar.

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And it's also a dish that you find at Christmas time, 
which suggests,

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you know, that the celebration of Saint Brigid or Saint Brigid's Eve, 
was as significant a holiday as Christmas would have been,

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which is not the case anymore, although we have seen a huge resurgence 
in the celebration of Saint Brigid today.

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Otherwise, we have reports from folklorists of dishes that would be 
consumed in the celebration,

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where we would have mutton and bacon and fowl and colcannon, 
which is mashed potato made with onion or scallions and again,

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buttermilk and butter. As well as sowans.

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I don't know if you've ever come across sowans.

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JEREMY:
That's fermented oats?

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CASTRÍONA:
Yeah. So it's like the original oat milk.

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I think it's amazing that we had oat milk in Ireland long before there 
was ever a trend for it.

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S o it's fermented oatmeal and oat husks, 
and it can be made into either a,

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or consumed as either a drink, depending on how thin it is or kind of 
a flummery,

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so it sets with the starch from the oats.

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JEREMY:
But these dishes, I mean, when I've visited Ireland, 
boxty is everywhere.

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S o has it expanded from being a special dish to something that you 
get any time,

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any place, like so many luxury foods or special foods have done?

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Or was it always kind of common but just special on Saint Brigid's 
Eve?

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CASTRÍONA:
I would imagine it would have always been common, 
considering the ingredients are ingredients that would have been on

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hand for a good part of the year in Ireland.

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I think probably you would see the celebratory aspect of it in the 
serving of it,

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perhaps with sugar, as sugar would not necessarily have been easily 
available.

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I mean, for me personally, growing up in Ireland and we would have 
eaten a lot of traditional foods growing up,

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I actually never had boxty until I went to a restaurant in Temple Bar 
called the Boxty House,

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a really good restaurant for anyone who's ever visiting Temple Bar in 
Dublin.

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But I think it depends on where you come from.

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So you see a good concentration of boxty around the border counties 
Cavan,

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Monaghan and so not necessarily everywhere.

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JEREMY:
And what about the dairy aspect of it?

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Y ou mentioned dairy being important.

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Were there special dairy dishes for for Saint Brigid's Eve?

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CASTRÍONA:
So I think more so we see the use of dairy in dishes, 
and then we also see stories linking Brigid to dairy ,

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kind of which drives that idea that that dairy was significant.

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So, you know, there was a tradition that you would leave your butter 
outside on the windowsill or on the Clyde (???),

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which is an old type of stone wall, 
for Saint Brigid to bless as she passed on Saint Brigid's eve.

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And that would protect your supply of dairy for the coming year.

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Saint Brigid herself was ... There are miracles about Brigid being 
able to milk the cows three times a day so that she could feed

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everybody in the monastery. Yeah, it was it was quite a significant 
foodstuff.

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JEREMY:
Yeah. Modern dairy is only just catching up with that.

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What about, w hat about these Saint Brigid's crosses?

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Now, I've seen them. But what's the significance of Saint Brigid's 
crosses?

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And what do they look like?

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CASTRÍONA:
I'm sure you've seen the four legged Saint Brigid's cross.

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And I think a lot of people think that that's the most common. But 
actually, that was popularised in the 1960s when our national

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broadcaster chose it as their logo , 
so that is the cross that that most people know.

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A nd as I said, it's four legged and it is made from rushes.

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But there are many, many kinds of different crosses.

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And I think the biggest collection of them in Ireland is in the Museum 
of Country Life in County Mayo.

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It's well worth a visit for anyone visiting the west of Ireland.

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It's a really beautiful museum, and so many of the crosses are made 
with rushes,

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and they may have four legs or three legs or ...

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And they come in various different sizes, 
and they would be hung around the house to welcome Saint Brigid.

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Or they could be given to newlyweds to protect their house or ...

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And to ... In the hopes that they may produce children.

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You see a lot of things around fertility at Saint Brigid's Day with 
the spring awakening.

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B ut in terms of food, we see crosses used in sheds for animals, 
where they would be hung above the door to protect the animals.

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But then we also see them in the planting of crops.

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So there's a beautiful story that a folklore informant told actually 
in County Roscommon whilst making a cross himself.

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And we see that same juxtaposition between Ireland's pagan past and 
Christianity,

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where he is making a cross with a small sheaf of unthreshed oats, 
potato and a slender rod of sallow.

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He calls it a scallop. The cross would then be thrust up in the thatch 
and left there until the first sowing of the oats for the year,

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after which it would be removed and the seed used from it.

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In the first planting before planting, 
the seed would be covered in hen dung,

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a sovereign remedy against witchcraft and fairy machinations, 
and then sprinkled with holy water and a little salt.

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The cross would then be replaced until the first sowing of the potato,

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which would then be cut up and used as the, 
you know, the first seed potato on Good Friday.

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And then it would be put back up on the thatch and removed the 
following year and replaced with a fresh cross.

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So again that's you know, that juxtaposition.

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We see the hen dung and the holy water when really you've got 
fertilizer and liquid.

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JEREMY:
But in the old pagan tradition, hen dung is more than just a 
fertilizer?

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CASTRÍONA:
Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. But I think the interesting thing is that we 
are seeing because Saint Brigid's Day itself is a Christian holiday.

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But within the celebration of it, we are also seeing the kind of 
carrying on of those pagan traditions,

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perhaps unbeknownst to people, through superstitious practices.

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JEREMY:
Well, and finally, is there a tradition around Saint Brigid of of 
charity?

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I mean, you say she fed people who came to her and and fed the whole 
monastery and all the rest of it,

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but is there a general tradition about hospitality to strangers?

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CASTRÍONA:
Yes. Well, again, you know, in those miracles that I mentioned before,

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she feeds people who come to visit her.

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But there is also another miracle that I came across in the course of 
this research of the Schools Collection,

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where Brigid called to a house that a man had no food to offer her, 
and the cupboards were bare,

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and but he showed her kindness. And after she left, 
he found that the cupboards had been completely stocked with

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everything that he might need. S o you do see some kind of charitable 
donations of food also.

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JEREMY:
L et's just talk about one other thing.

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You said earlier on that there's been an expansion in the celebration 
of of Saint Brigid's Eve,

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Saint Brigid's Day. H ow has that taken place?

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And what do you think has been driving it?

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CASTRÍONA:
I would say that ... So there are several factors. There's one very 
practical factor in that after the pandemic,

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the Irish government added a bank holiday to the Irish calendar, 
and it is on Saint Brigid's Day.

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So, you know, there is all of a sudden kind of a drive and funding for 
celebration of that day because it's good for tourism,

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it's good for business, and it's good for the hospitality industry.

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So that would be one one aspect of it.

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I also think in general, we've seen a huge resurgence in interest in 
traditions and folklore,

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which I think, again, we can maybe link to the pandemic.

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I do think after a big scare, I suppose people tend to maybe look 
inwards and go back to their roots.

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And so we have seen a, you know ...

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There are other traditions, not just Saint Brigid's Day, 
like the Mummers or the Wren Boys on Saint Stephen's Day have become

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really popular again. So, you know, 
I think that those two reasons have been big driving forces in the

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resurgence of the celebration of Saint Brigid's Day.

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JEREMY:
Caitríona Nic Philibin , who's currently expanding her study of food 
and folklore,

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and Saint Brigid to stories collected in the 1950s in Northern 
Ireland.

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There's a huge amount on Saint Brigid available online and it can be 
hard to find your way around.

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I'll put links to a few pieces by Caitríona, 
along with a couple of tunes composed specially to celebrate the day,

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in the show notes at Eat This Podcast.com.

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And as we're starting a new year and a new season, 
a quick reminder that there's a transcript for each episode on the

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website, made possible thanks to the generosity of the good people who 
assist me with a donation.

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You can join them at Eat This Podcast.com/ Supporters.

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I'm also always happy to hear from you with comments, 
suggestions, or even complaints.

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You can email me . Jeremy at Eat This Podcast.com.

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For now though, until the next time from me, 
Jeremy Cherfas and Eat This Podcast,

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goodbye and thanks for listening.