A chara, – We brace ourselves for the first onslaught of a new public holiday, Saint Brigid’s Day. As the years go by, will she be spared the grotesque commercialisation and paddywhackery that plagues Saint Patrick’s Day? Maybe not the leprechaun hats and green beer, but a new level of whackery all of its own, a grotesque self-indulgent whackery of wokism, paganism, pseudo-history and political opportunism.
Until now Saint Brigid’s feast day is an authentic community celebration of the historical Brigid, a fifth-century abbess who founded monasteries and contributed enormously to the growth of the early Irish church. It is paradoxical that brave new secular and politically correct Ireland should indulge in the highjacking and cultural appropriation of a religious feast day. – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN Mac GUILL,
Clichy,
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France.
