Calls for image of St Brigid by Clare artist to be adopted as official icon

ALL FOUR female Clare county councillors have come together to ask the government to adopt an image of St Brigid by a Clare artist as the official image of the saint.

The four councillors jointly put forward the motion to support an application to have a stained-glass image of St Brigid, created by a prominent County Clare female artist Catherine O’Brien, adopted as the official image of the saint.

The application was made last year by Ennis and County Clare Soroptimist International, a global volunteer movement working together to transform the lives of women and girls, to adopt the image after St Brigid’s Day was designated as a new national public holiday.

Catherine O’Brien (1881-1963) was born in County Clare. She was one of several female  artists who excelled at the art of stained glass in the first half of the twentieth century. In  this stained-glass image, located in St Bartholomew's in Dublin, depicts Brigid as strong, compassionate,and thoughtful, holding the perpetual flame of her Kildare abbey and a scroll that indicates learning. 

In proposing the motion at Monday’s Clare County Council meeting, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy said that “as a multicultural state, it is important that our new citizens are given the opportunity to  experience our traditions and customs by drawing on the community’s culture and heritage  through the arts, whilst also addressing the objectives of equality for women and girls.”

The motion was also put forward by councillors Ann Norton, Donna McGettigan and Mary Howard, who remarked “it is only appropriate that Clare County Council and the women of Clare County Council bring this forward, considering one of the most sacred places in the county is St Brigid’s Well.”

“I am delighted to support it, and as someone who was reared by a Brigid, I’m very proud to be associated with this, my late mother was Brid,” she continued.

The motion was supported by a number of male councillors, including Michael Begley whose mother was also a Brigid.