David Stifter 🍵📄🦊

Yes precisely. In Old Irish, it is spelled both Imbolg & Imbolc, which is a typical spelling variation for a word ending in /-lg/. By using the spelling Imbolc in English, people who don't know the intricacies of OIr. spelling (i.e. 99.9% of the population at least) are led to believe it has /-lk/.

I got it from the Breton Wikipedia page...

No: The word is sometimes written "imbolg", sometimes "imbolc" in Old Irish - the typical kind of orthographic variation for a word that ends in /lg/.

And just as a disclosure: I am not a venerator of anything or anyone. I actually call this day "first of February".

For the day that's in it 4:

A hill that I'll die on: today should be properly called and written "Imbolg", not "Imbolc".
The word has a -g at the end, not a -c.

I'll try to get it at the next antiques fair! 😅

How a St Brigid miracle not taught at school was reclaimed by a graphic novelist Hannah McCann: ‘Maybe graphic novels were sniffed at in the past as not really reading, but they’re an important literary device’

For the day that's in it 3:

St Brigit and abortion rights, as expressed by the graphic novel artist @hannahmccann.bsky.social.

www.irishtimes.com/abroad/2026/...

For the day that's in it 2:
I didn't know until today that St Brigit is known in Breton under the two forms of her name Berc'hed and Birzidañ.

...from Recension 1 of Táin Bó Cúailnge (the transition from "Slánugud na Mórrígnae" and "Breslech Mór Maige Muirthemne").
I bought this bank note today at an antiques fair. According to the seller it was stuck to the wall of a pub for the past decades (McMahon's Pub, Emyvale, Co. Monaghan).
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For the day that's in it, an important woman from Irish literature, long before the time I came to Ireland. I knew about the old one-punt note with Queen Medb, but I hadn't realised that the reverse features a facsimile of Lebor na hUidre p. 77b (www.isos.dias.ie/ga/RIA/RIA_M...), an excerpt...
/1

The Lie, Mary O'Malley The lie that a protester shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis was a terrorist, the lie that killers set loose on their own cities are victims, the lie that a poem is a gun. A poem is not a gun, though a poem from the pen of Akhmatova or Neruda or Mandelstam, not one of whom ever to my knowledge fired a shot, might in certain conjugations of the stars lodge in the heart and spread out across mountains and borders across languages and the sea and you can’t shoot it down, or lock it up or alter its pixels. It is played on the hollowed reeds of dead bones. A poem like that is a bomb. Mary O’Malley’s most recent collection, The Shark Nursery (Carcanet), was winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry 2025

From yesterday's Irish Times.

Born-Again Brigit - Birthday boy Frank McNally on the rebranding of February 1st Unlike St Patrick, there is no historical record of her life, so her identity can be endlessly refreshed or reimagined

D vs. T?

It's the 31st January 2026, and the Irish Brigidine publication business is in full steam. In the Irish Times today, @frankie49.bsky.social asks the question "Brigid or Brigit?". What is the correct spelling?
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

As it happens, I will answer this...
/1

The Age of Christ, 525. The twenty-second year of Muircheartach. Saint Brighit, virgin, Abbess of Cill Dara, died. It was to her Cill Dara was first granted, and by her it was founded. Brighit was she who never turned her mind or attention from the Lord for the space of one hour, but was constantly meditating and thinking of him in her heart and mind, as is evident in her own Life, and in the Life of St. Brenainn, Bishop of Cluain Fearta. She spent her time diligently serving the Lord, performing wonders and miracles, healing every disease and every malady, as her Life relates, until she resigned her spirit to heaven, the first day of the month of February; and her body was interred at Dun, in the same tomb with Patrick, with honour and veneration.

The Age of Christ, 525...Saint Brighit, virgin, Abbess of Cill Dara, died...She spent her time diligently serving the Lord, performing wonders and miracles, healing every disease and every malady, as her Life relates, until she resigned her spirit to heaven, the first day of the month of February...

For St Brigit’s Day, there’s a feast of writings for you by Maynooth scholars such as @niamhwycherley.bsky.social @davidstifter.bsky.social amongst others, and by UCD Early Irish historian @elvabjohnston.bsky.social

Here’s her fascinating paper

muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/arti...

Today, St Brigid’s Day, marks three years since Ireland’s first public holiday named after a woman. It’s a chance to celebrate the vital role women play in Irish culture and history.

Discover St Brigid's story on the @dib.ie https://www.dib.ie/biography/brigit-brighid-brid-bride-bridget-a0961.

The Com Dhíneol Thuaidh / Coumeenoole North ogham stone (I-KER-046). More information here: ogham.celt.dias.ie/I-KER-046

Four Courts Press | Brigid’s Worlds Proceedings from the Brigid 1500 Maynooth University and Kildare County Council Conference by Niamh Wycherley, editor

Link for the conference proceedings in which my article will appear: www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2026/b...

Four Courts Press | Brigid’s Worlds Proceedings from the Brigid 1500 Maynooth University and Kildare County Council Conference by Niamh Wycherley, editor

"Brigid's Worlds", like the conference in Maynooth in September 2024. It already has a page on the Four Courts Press website: www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2026/b...
The publication date is given for March 2026, which is a bit optimistic.

Performing Early Irish Poetry — Brigid's Day Bonus Episode

...with Prof Jean-Michel Picard (UCD) on Brigit in medieval Europe: open.spotify.com/episode/0Bl4...

3. and a bonus episode of the podcast with a recitation of Old Irish poetry about Brigit: open.spotify.com/episode/66I2...

Happy Brigidine celebrations!
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How Brigit continues to inspire poets, writers and artists An Irish woman who has been dead for over 1,500 years continues to inspire extraordinary creative expression, write MU's Dr Niamh Wycherley, Prof David Stifter and PhD researcher Tiago de Oliveira

As for the Brigidine publishing business, Niamh, Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social & myself have already contributed several pieces this weekend:

1. Brigit as artistic inspiration: www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spo...

2. a Medieval Irish History podcast interview...
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...Dr Niamh Wycherley @niamhwycherley.bsky.social, to appear with Four Courts Press later this year. In my article, I shed light on the 6,000 (in words: six thousand) years old history of the name "Brigit/Brigid", from its origin as *bʰr̥g̑ʰn̥tih₂- "the elevated one" in Proto-Indo-European.
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...question in a forthcoming article. I attach the relevant excerpt here, in which I discuss the issue of how to spell the name (spoiler alert: in what ever way you like).

My article with the title "The Significance of 'Brigit'" will be one chapter of a volume edited by my colleague...
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Born-Again Brigit - Birthday boy Frank McNally on the rebranding of February 1st Unlike St Patrick, there is no historical record of her life, so her identity can be endlessly refreshed or reimagined

D vs. T?

It's the 31st January 2026, and the Irish Brigidine publication business is in full steam. In the Irish Times today, @frankie49.bsky.social asks the question "Brigid or Brigit?". What is the correct spelling?
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-i...

As it happens, I will answer this...
/1

An audio gift for Brigid Day 2026 if you want to hear recitations of Old Irish poems and a short prose piece about St Brigid in the original language (with a German accent 😅), done by myself, followed by English translations read by @niamhwycherley.bsky.social.
Thank you @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social!

St Brigit in Continental Europe with Prof. Jean-Michel Picard

Happy St Brigid's weekend! To celebrate we bring you a journey through Europe w/Prof. Jean-Michel Picard, UCD. He has unreal stories of hunting down manuscripts (incl. Napoleon & nazis!) & helps us understand the appeal of Brigid in lands far from Kildare! #brigid open.spotify.com/episode/0Bl4...

Vibrant mural featuring a woman's face with long red hair flowing like flames. Her blue eyes, delicate features, and green leaves covering part of her face add a mystical aura. Small blue and white flowers are interwoven in her hair, set against a backdrop of vivid green and orange hues.

How Brigit continues to inspire poets, writers and artists 🎨

An Irish woman who has been dead for over 1,500 years continues to inspire extraordinary creative expression, write MU's Dr Niamh Wycherley, Prof David Stifter and Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spo...

For the weekend that's in it, why not read a Life of St Brigid, or, Betha Brigte. An Leabhar Breac (RIA MS 23 P 16) contains a copy of the Life on starting on p. 61. You can see the "incipit" (Latin for "beginning") outlined in red pigment here, with Brigte spilling over from one line onto another.

Odd as it may sound, but I don't recall ever having met Prof Máirtín Ó Murchú. Our activities were always on very different planes.

Image 1. Once complete the ADH Telescope was installed in Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1950. It was the largest Schmidt telescope in the Southern Hemisphere in the 1950s.

The 36 inch Schmidt telescope was financed by a £5,000 grant from each Armagh, Dunsink and Harvard, and was built by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation in the US.

✨#24 of #85ThingsAboutDIAS

In 1950 the ADH Telescope was installed, it was the largest Schmidt telescope in the Southern Hemisphere in the 1950s. The 36 inch Schmidt telescope was built by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, financed by a £5,000 grant from Armagh, Dunsink and Harvard.

#DIASdiscovers

Global, instead of just European, for the first time.

Tulips, in the 17th century Netherlands.
Of course, who wouldn't put all their money into tulip bulbs?