Thank you Brigidine College St Ives

A win for classroom collaboration

We are delighted to report that this collaborative project on St Brigid between St Wolstans Community School, Co Kildare and Brigidine College St Ives, Sydney was awarded the Junior Spider for Best Project in the Junior Spider Awards, Tera category.

Below are Meg, Aoibheann, and Kate accepting the award on behalf of all involved. Well done!

Junior Spiders Shortlist

Our class are delighted by the wonderful news that we have been shortlisted for the eircom Junior Spider Awards!

We entered the 'Best Project' category and were thrilled to get the news of being shortlisted.

Our project was a collaborative project in that all 3 TY classes took part in researching about St Brigid in their Religion classes and then they contributed their work to this blog. The information was to help the students of Brigidine College, St Ives in Sydney, Australia, to learn about their patron saint, St Brigid. They then made videos for us so we could see how far away St Brigid's influence had spread.

We would like to thank our teacher Mrs. L for guiding us to get this far.
Now we look forward to the competition on Tuesday March 5th in the RDS. Let's hope our St. Brigid's project can go the whole way!
Congratulations to all those shortlisted and we look forward to seeing all the other projects next week at the RDS.

                                  Thanks, Junior Spiders, for bringing us this far!


-Meg

Fiona's trip to Kildare

Fiona writes about her recent trip to Kildare to walk in St Brigid's footsteps....

Hey  guys!
Last week on  the 1st of February it was St.Bridgid's day! This is a very special holiday in Ireland especially in Kildare because here in Kildare was she lived and set up her convent.
We went on a trip to Kildare town to visit the historical sites related to St.Brigid. We went inside her cathedral which was very interesting as we saw lots Brigid crosses hanging up on the walls and on a Concrete statue of Bishop Wesley there was a fertility mark. It is believed that if you touch it you will become very fertile!

Next on our trip we went to St.Brigid's kitchen with was a small passage underground which apparently  years ago had hundreds of tunnels leading around kildare so if there was an attack on the cathedral  people could escape. (unfortunately it wasn't a real kitchen like i taught it was).

After that we went to the round tower at the back of the church. It was very interesting to know that it was the  tallest round tower in Ireland until its cone roof fell off which lead to it being the second largest in Ireland today.

After we finished our lunch we went walking (a very long walk) and  we visited St.Bridgids Well. We prayed around the well and took jars of her holy water. I found this experience very relaxing and it took a load off my shoulders as beside the well there was a tree where people could tie something small like a ribbon to the branches. I tied a woolen tread from my hat around one of the highest branches I could find to remember my nanas and grandads that are in heaven looking down on us, and my baby cousin Trease. I now feel happier that St.Bridgid is with them.

So that was the end of the trip and we went home happy and tired from our trip. I loved learning more about St.Bridgid and it made me more proud to be from Kildare. I also found out that she is popular not only in Ireland but that she is infact the patron saint of the Brigidine schools in Australia. It is so cool because we are working on projects to put up on our blog so that the school in Australia can learn from our experiences here in Kildare too :D

Model of the original Town

St. Brigid's cathedral 

Me getting to ring the bells in the cathedral 

The Famous round tower... Its HUGE

St.Brigid's Flame

St.Brigid's Kitchen

St.Brigid's Statue and holy stream

The first of St.Brigid's wells 

The woman herself St.Brigid 

St.Brigid's well

Tree beside St.Brigid's well, where we could tie strings praying for our loved ones alive and passed

Sarah's trip to Kildare

Sarah M writes about her recent trip to Kildare to celebrate St Bridget's Day......

Last Wednesday was St Brigid's day. Our religion teachers thought it would be a great idea to take us to Kildare town which is very historical and links in with St Brigid's life. Yesterday we visited Kildare town to learn about St Brigid. Even though we all live in County Kildare it's surprising how many people in our class have never actually been to Kildare town.

We got the bus to Kildare and we went into the Kildare Town Heritage Centre where we watched a video on St Brigid's life and historical places in Kildare town. There was lots of art and ornaments upstairs too. There is a really unusual monument outside the centre which signifies St Brigid's Flame.

Then we headed off to St Brigid's Cathedral. This was really nice and the inside was beautifully decorated inside. We all even got a go at ringing the bell too. The round tower was at the back of the Cathedral. Usually this was open for visitors to climb but unfortunately it wasn't open yesterday. Then we saw St Brigid's fire temple. This is where she used to light a fire to let people know they were welcome. St Brigid's kitchen was really interesting. We went in in 10's to see it. It's was pretty small and you definitely wouldn't want to be claustrophobic.

After walking quite a lot we were given the chance to go to the Kildare Village Outlet. Here we looked around the shops and had a quick rest. We had our lunch at a local parish centre.

Our last stop was at the two wells in the town. I enjoyed this part of the pilgrimage because we got to bless ourselves from the wells and reflect. St Brigid's well was especially nice. The well was really pretty and there was a statue of St Brigid. We said a few prayers here too.

I think this pilgrimage was good because I learned a lot more about St Brigid. It was a very relaxing peaceful day. I recommend anyone living in Kildare to visit here it's very worthwhile!
Here are some pictures I took!
photo1: St Brigid's cathedral
photo 2: The Graveyard
photo 3: St Brigid's well

The Prayer Room in February

For St Wolstan's part in this project, each TY class took on a special task.

Class Banba choose to take charge of decorating the Prayer Room for February.
Class Fodla set up and managed this blog.
Class Eiru wrote a prayer service to be used at St Bridid's Well on out trip there.

Below Roisin and Monique show us around the Prayer Room. The video is a bit dark because the lighting in the room is low in order to make our Prayer Room peaceful and serene. Roisin's dad made the well for us to celebrate St Brigid's day. Isn't it fabulous? Huge thanks to Roisin's dad.

The Day by Aoibheann and Kate

Aoibheann and Kate wrote this poem themselves to celebrate St Brigid's Day. Here they are reciting the poem for us. Hopefully the students from Brigidine College in Australia will be able to understand our accents!

Trip to Kildare

On Tuesday 7th February, all TYs took a trip to Kildare to learn about St. Bridgid. We visited St. Bridgid's Cathedral and two of St. Bridgid's Wells. It was a fun and educational day that we all enjoyed. 

Check out what we did here on Emma's blog and here on Rebekah's blog. Meg and Aoife had a great time too!

The Brigeog

The Brigeog

This is a doll that represents St Bridget. It is made with rushes/straw by girls on St. Brigids day. It was believed to bring good fortune.

The girls would bring the doll around from house to house and the women of the house would invite the girls in.

Roisin and Monique

The Brat Bride

The Brat Bhride (Brigid's mantle) is a piece of cloth.

Source

The cloth was placed on a window sill, fence or tree branch on the 31^st of January (the night before St. Brigid’s day). The belief was that during the night St. Bridget would bless the cloth. This cloth would be used for fertility and for curing illness throughout the year.

Roisin and Monique

Saint Bridget’s Poem

Meg, Aoibheann and Kate were in a group that were researching poems about and prayers to St Brigid. After researching they all decided to write their own poems. This is a poem that Meg wrote.

Saint Bridget’s Poem

By Meg Maguire

The first of February comes once a year

And with it comes a great big cheer.

Cheering for the Saint that is

Saint Bridget of Kildare, Ireland.

She longed for land to build a church

But money, oh, she had to search

And then upon a great field she stumbled

A cathedral here, she would be so humbled.

She begged the owner to show her love

And share his wealth of land above

He laughed and said ‘Throw your cloak’

‘Where it lands you may own’, he joked.

So Bridget threw her soft blue cloak

And to all surprise it began to grow

Grow and stretch far and wide

Till Bridget had enough land by her side.

The owner grunted but kept his deal

The land was Bridget’s on all appeal.

She built a church and today it stands

County Kildare on that same land.

Here is Meg reading her own poem

A Poem for St Bridget's Day

Aoibheann, Kate and Meg were in a group that were researching poems about and prayers to St Brigid. After researching they all decided to write their own poems. This is a poem that Aoibheann and Kate wrote together. 

The Day

By Aoibheann O’Farrell and Kate O’Neill

Once a year the day comes around

The reeds of the cross are tightly bound,

In the towns land of Kildare

There are parades and festivals everywhere,

The children play, laugh and cheer

They feel her holy presence near,

People tell stories and they spoke

They spoke of the woman in the cloak,

She spread her cloak across the land

Where now her church proudly stands,

She did this because she could not pay,

Yes, it is St.Brigid’s day!

Slide show on Co.Kildare

St Brigid's Kildare

Aisling made a slide show on some intresting places in Co. Kildare. There is more infromation about famous places in Kildare on the page called ' Co.Kildare'

Please leave Aisling your comments on the slide show :)