Hint: It wasn’t magical, as such, and it probably wasn’t little, and it’s highly unlikely that it was vibrant green…
Brigid’s Day marks the beginning of Spring, or Imbolc, as it is known in Ireland. Whether you choose to think of her as Goddess or Saint isn’t really important. What matters is that year on year, her influence is gaining and rising. She brings light, and love, inspiration and healing to all, something that shines all the more brightly in the dark and difficult times we are moving through.
Now that she has been officially recognised as a patron of Ireland, making her equal with her contemporary, Patrick, more and more communities are taking up her mantle, quite literally in some cases, and celebrating her presence in the Irish consciousness. I’m referencing in particular the growing trend of women’s groups coming together to create a communal Brigid’s cloak.
One such project resulted in this stunning cloak pictured below, and I am happy to say that this particular garment has now found itself a permanent home at the Cavan County Museum.
The Miracle of Brigid’s Cloak
Why the cloak, you may wonder. Well, it’s significant in Brigid’s story, because without it, there would have been no dual monastery at Kildare, and without that, Brigid’s power may not have been consolidated within the history of the church or mythology in Ireland.
In early Ireland, women were not permitted to own land, so if they refused marriage and wished, say, to found a religious institute instead, they had to rely on the benevolence of a generous male relative or sponsor. Brigid had set her sights on a piece of land that benefitted from verdant pastureland, forest and lake, but it was not within the remit of her father to bestow it. She had to approach and convince the King of Leinster.
The story goes that when she first approached him with her request, he refused. Undeterred, she asked if she might claim the patch of land her cloak would cover. He laughed, eyeing up her small cloak, and agreed. When she spread out her cloak, her followers took hold of a corner each and ran in all four directions, tugging the cloak so that it began to expand , covering a large part of the lands of Kildare. Amazed, the King was forced to concede and gifted her possession of the land her cloak covered, as agreed.
The Cloak in Irish Mythology
The cloak was such an important item of clothing that it featured prominently in Irish mythology and always possessed some magical quality.
There is Manannán’s cloak, the Féth Fíada, which seemed to be made of sea-mist, and which he used to conceal the Otherworld of the Tuatha de Danann from mortal consciousness. It thus functioned as a cloak of invisibility, although in my view, it was more a cloak of confusion, in the way that fog confuses and misleads the senses. He also shook it between his adulterous wife, Fand, and her lover, Cúchulainn, causing them to forget their passion for each other, earning it the reputation of being the cloak of forgetting. Both useful functions, I imagine.
Balor, giant-king of the Fir Bolg, enemies of the Tuatha de Danann, was said to have kept his poison-eye covered with seven cloaks when not in use. Removing them one by one slowly increased the power levels of his eye of destruction. Sounds like some kind of laser or flamethrower to me.
The Dagda of the Danann possessed many magical objects, among them a hooded cloak known as the Lumman, that gave its wearer the ability to shapeshift and/or change colour, the latter perhaps in the way that chameleons and octopus change colour to blend in with their surroundings.
In the Forbais Droma Damhgaire, an early Irish tale known as the Siege of Knocklong, powerful blind druid, Mogh Ruith, is described as wearing several garments, which may or may not form aspects of the same item. For example, he wore a hornless bull hide that protected him in battle, a feathered head-dress/ mask called the Encennach, and a feathered cloak, objects that empowered him to fly and master elemental forces. He certainly appears as an earth god in this story, in terms of the magic he wields, while the feathered cloak is reminiscent of the Fili’s tuigen.
The filidh, an elite class of poets, were described in early Irish literature and myth as wearing a special ceremonial cloak made of feathers known as the tuigen. The Immacallam in dá Thuarad, a tenth-century text also known as the Colloquy of the Two Sages, describes it as:
… a covering of bright bird’s feathers in the middle, a showery specking of fin-druine (white-silver) on the lower half, and a golden color on the upper half.
The Sanas Cormaic, Cormac’s Glossary, a text dating from 903 AD, containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words, also mentions the Tuigen as:
… made of the skins of birds, white and many-colored from the girdle downwards, and of mallard’s necks and crests from the girdle upwards.
In terms of Christian lore, I have only come across one other reference to a magical cloak. In a text known as the Life of Saint Finnchua, the King of Fermoy chases Finchua’s mother when she is pregnant with him. A “cloak of darkness, celtchair dhichlethi, was put round her by miraculous Christian intervention so that she escaped.” And thus her child survived and grew up to become a saint.1
Brigid is the only woman I can think of that had a magic cloak. Airmid does not count, as although it is said she laid out all the herbs of Ireland according to their medicinal properties upon her cloak, there is no indication that the cloak itself possessed any magical proerties of its own.
The Cloak in History
So why is it that the humble cloak has acquired such magical associations? We have to look into historical context for that. In Ireland, fashions have come and gone, just like anywhere else, with the exception of the the large fringed cloak known as the brat. Despite the adoption of English and European style over the centuries, and the rigorously enforced English laws banning Irish dress, the brat persisted.
The brat was worn by men, woman and children and was made of heavy wool, with a woolen fringe all along the straight edge, which may or may not be the same colour as the fabric, and was usually, but not always, semicircular, falling from shoulders to the ankle. The fringe acted like a collar, keeping the neck and chest area warm. It had no fastening, and pictures do not show it pinned in place by a brooch of any kind. It could be hiked up and worn over the head in inclement weather. Sometimes, the brat might be made of linen or leather. The wealthy would have included a softer inner wool lining, and brighter colours in their bratanna (plural) than poorer folk.
People used the brat as a warm and weatherproof outer garment. They also used it to keep warm inside their homes, too. It was used as a blanket or bedcovering, and used as a sleeping bag when travelling. It was much admired by English soldiers who observed its usefulness out in the field during the battles and skirmishes with Irish rebels of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. In fact, it was even adopted by English and European fashionistas of the period, as port records show a robust trade in Irish bratanna being shipped overseas.
It is clear that the Irish brat was an iconic garment revered for its practicality and its warmth throughout the centuries, so it comes as no surprise that the bratanna belonging to special or significant people might have been seen to have special qualities as well. In terms of visibility, or invisibility and disguise, the natural colours of undyed wool, and the soft greens and russets and greys achieved by natural plant dyes may have helped people blend into the surrounding landscape.
The brat, and other native dress, was finally eradicated during the late 1700s by the English, who were so determined to stamp out all Irish heritage and culture. I’d just like to add here that the kilt, the Arran sweater, and the Irish dancing dresses were never part of traditional dress, but introduced much, much later.
The Brat Bríde
My husband gave me a new book at Christmas, Old Ways to New Days: The Folklore Traditions and Everyday Objects that Shaped Ireland by Shane Lehane. In it, he describes how it was customary to hang a piece of cloth, the Brat Bríde, or a ribbon, the Ribín Bríde, on a bush outside the home on the eve of St Brigid’s Day. It was believed that Brigid in passing would bestow her blessing upon these items, imbuing it with magical properties. This item could then be used for the healing of humans and animals, for easing births, protecting female virginity, and for increasing fertility, often by the man using it to “polish up” his “apparatus” [p.29].
Clearly, the tradition of the Brat Bríde replicates the magic of the Saint’s cloak, and comes to represent all the protective and nurturing functions of the woman herself. It is also a tradition that is being currently revived, less in a folkloric sense, but more as a way of honouring and respecting the values Brigid still embodies for us today.
The significance of Brigid’s cloak was largely its symbolic power. Every brat contained a LOT of fabric, so who’s to say how much ground Brigid’s could cover when laid out? She was no ordinary woman, after all. Its magical growth was symbolic of the growth of her own influence and goodness, and the love she generated through her kindness and generosity as demonstrated in her miracles — they fed people, they clothed people, they healed people, unlike Patrick’s miracles, which were generally violent. And it also symbolised the growth of Christianity in general, spreading across the land of Ireland
I like to imagine Brigid’s brat as a blessing of green fertility that sweeps the landscape at Imbolc, extending a carpet of new life and abundance in all the four directions of the land as she moves through it. And we are part of it.
I hope you have enjoyed this slight departure from the Brigid & Imbolc story. Please remember to click that ‘like’ button and share with like-minded Hags. Do you wear a cloak, or have you made one? Do you leave out a Brat Bride every Imbolc? What does Brigid mean to you? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
1 Joyce, P.W. A social history of ancient Ireland : treating of the government, military system, and law; religion, learning, and art; trades, industries, and commerce; manners, customs and domestic life, of the ancient Irish people, The Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd., 1903
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