She genuinely thought that brewing a lake of beer would make all of the world’s troubles go away. You may assume that publicist and brewer Judith Boyle, whose family has been involved in pubs and beer for five generations, was referring to a relative who made ale when she said these things in her eponymous bar in Kildare, a commuter town 30 minutes from Dublin by train.
However, as I was discovering, she’s actually talking about St. Brigid, who is, among many other things, the patron saint of beer. While I sip Judith’s latest batch of Brigid Ale, a malty braggot sweetened sweet with honey from her beekeeper dad’s hives, she tells me, “They say she made dirty water into beer and managed to share a single pot of ale with her entire parish of 18 churches.”
“Every year, on the first of February, the town’s children have a day off from school. We make Brigid’s crosses in January.” Not just students in Kildare will have the day off this year. After great advocacy, Brigid’s feast day was selected as the new public holiday to be added to the Irish calendar in 2023.
The St. Brigid’s Trail has five stops, and the virtual reality journey at the Heritage Centre in Kildare is where the legend of Brigid begins, starting in AD 451. The following morning, I go there and put on a virtual reality headset to meet Brigid, the ancient goddess of fire. Before long, I’m riding a peregrine falcon as it soars through 1,500 years of history.