Derry Girls star Siobhan McSweeney is set to front a new documentary about her quest to find St Brigid.
Finding Brigid will see the actress – who played Sister Michael in the hit Channel 4 show – go in search of the meaning of the woman behind the holiday, which falls on February 5.
1500 years after Brigid’s death, McSweeney unravels the tangled threads of fact and folklore to reveal the truth about this elusive goddess, woman and saint, and asks why, in an increasingly secular and diverse Ireland, Brigid's popularity appears to be on the rise.
She gathers a "mnásome" group of women in a stone circle in Galway, with Herstory activist Melanie Lynch, and poet Laura Murphy, who candidly reveal their motivation behind the Herstory campaign and their mission to make St Brigid’s Day a national holiday.
Joining them are historian Niamh Wycherley and sisters Mary Kennedy and Deirdre Ni Chinnéide, who grew up by St Brigid’s Well in Clondalkin and are co-authors of the book Journey to the Well.
Broadcaster Mary openly shares the influence she feels Brigid had on her, saying: "I did feel that by researching and by writing about Brigid, I got more of a sense of me as a woman, as an Irish woman, as a woman with Celtic roots and a confidence."
Siobhán then visits the sacred Brigid’s Well in Kildare with former president Mary McAleese.
Finding Brigid airs Tuesday 31st January on RTÉ One at 10.15pm
