Brigid’s Light: Illuminating Paths of Justice and Solidarity
We are delighted to welcome you to Féile Bríde 2025. Organised in partnership with the Brigidines and Cairde Bríde in the beautiful Solas Bhríde Centre, this gathering is dedicated to exploring and encouraging action on the pressing issues of our time. The event brings together diverse speakers, wonderful musicians, and active community members for a day filled with information and inspiration, punctuated by music and poetry, light lunch, tree planting, and conversation.
The theme, “Brigid’s Light: Illuminating Paths of Justice and Solidarity,” calls on us to reflect deeply on our world’s challenges and honour the spirit of Brigid as a woman who cared deeply for the earth, justice, equality, and peace. The story of Brigid offers a profound lens through which we can understand our present struggles, having offered her father’s most prized possession, a bejewelled sword, to a poor and sick man so he could exchange it for food. Thus, Brigid turned a sword into a ploughshare and transformed a tool of war into nourishment and care. Today, this act of resistance is not only a symbol of hope but a powerful call to confront militarism and the destructive forces that perpetuate genocide, injustice and environmental ruin.
Our incredible contributors will illuminate these challenges and help us understand how to forge pathways of peace and justice. Brigid’s legacy is a stark reminder that we are the ancestors of the future, called to challenge injustice now so future generations may be free. At this moment of collective urgency, we remember that Brigid’s act was not just defiance but one steeped deeply in love and solidarity, as our event is, too.
Register on Eventbrite here
Programme
10:15 Registration
10:50 Opening Music by Emer Lynam and Procession of the Flame of Peace
10:55 Welcome
11:10 Brigid’s Call to Action Today: Defying Militarism and Protecting The Triple Lock – Niamh Ní Briain
11:50 Music – Dee Armstrong, performing songs from her upcoming solo album, Deichtine’s Daughter, accompanied by Lughaidh Armstrong and Gráinne Horan
12:10 Solar Lights and the Work of Development Pamoja – James Hennessy
12:50 Music – Dee Armstrong, accompanied by Lughaidh Armstrong and Gráinne Horan
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Tree Planting
14:15 Pocket Forests: Bringing Biodiversity to Your Doorstep – Catherine Cleary
14:50 Music – Kate Moore
15:00 Solidarity is Key – Raghad Abu Shammala
15:30 Closing Session – Seeds of Hope
16:20 Music – The Resistance Choir
The brochure is available for download here.
