"The Lia Fáil would cry out under his feet." - On the competing Christian and pagan claims to 'the coming Irish messiah'

Aodh Eanghach is traditionally seen as the guardian of Irish sovereignty - He is the last and ideal ruler, to whom all kings were compared.

Medieval poets foretold of a coming apocalyptic Irish king, who 'proclaimed by Nature herself',was destined to immortalise the Irish nation.

Gerald of Wales in his Irish histories writes in fear about a king-liberator called Aodh, who would arise to destroy the English invader.

English expansion into Ireland in the 12th c. encouraged a revival in Irish 'secular paganism'. The Bards predicted the rise of a liberator.

The Irish nationalist slogan 'Tiocfaidh ár lá' (Our day will come) is a modern form of the prophetic expectation of Gaelic resistance.

1 Feb: Feastday of St Brigid (†524), abbess & founder of Kildare, one of three patron saints of Ireland. Her devotional names - 'lilium inter spinas' (a lily amongst thorns) - Muire na nGael (Mary of the Gaels).

The enjoining of hands around symbols of fertility is impressed deeply in the Irish psyche. Whether it's the modern heart or ancient cord.

'Meeting On The Turret Stairs' - Frederic William Burton, 1864

#ValentinesDay #IrishArt

February 1st is the Feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare (Cill Dara, church of the oak), one of Ireland's patron saints.

Known as "the Mary of the Gael", Brigid was born in Faughart/Fochart, north of Dundalk, County Louth to Brocca, a Pictish slave who was baptised by Saint Patrick. Brigid herself was thus born into slavery.

During her childhood, it is said she performed several miracles, such as healing and feeding the poor. One account details how she gave away all of her mother's butter store, only for it to be replaced thanks to Brigid's prayers.

Dubhthach, a chieftain of Leinster, was her father. He grew aggravated with her and took her to the King of Leinster, Crimthann mac Énnai, to sell her. While he was in conversation, Brigid gave away his sword which was adorned with jewelry to a beggar so that he could barter it for food. Crimthann recognised that this was a holy child he had been delivered, and instead convinced Dubhthach to grant her freedom.

A pair of horses weather out the cold at Easky, County Sligo.

The Caves of Kesh, Sligo, Ireland.

The ancient Irish believed this place a gateway to the Otherworld and buried their dead inside to help guide them to the afterlife.

April 1st 1914 Cumann na mBan was established in Wynn's Hotel, Dublin. Their chief aims were to:

Advance the cause of Irish liberty
Organise Irish women in the furtherance of that objective

The role they played was vital in achieving Irish independence.

ON THIS DAY: 20 JUNE 1631: A village in Ireland was taken into slavery by north African raiders.

On that date in 1631, north African corsairs, or pirates, raided the village of Baltimore on the west Cork coast and took at least 107 of the villagers captive to be sold as slaves in Algiers.

Most of those abducted were part of an English settlement which had been established in the middle of a region that was part of the Ó Drisceóil clan territory. It was a part of the violent colonisation of that part of Ireland which had resulted in the victory of the English in the Nine Years War that ended with the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.