Name: Bringing St Brigid's Cloak to Life
Start: 2025-02-01T14:00:00+00:00
Location: Virginia Road, Ballyjamesduff, Ireland County Cavan

Bringing St. Brigid’s Cloak to Life:
Miracles are Just Love in Action
In the 1,500th anniversary year of St. Brigid’s death, scores of craftswomen, pupils, and writers have been celebrating her legacy in Bringing St. Brigid’s Cloak to Life. The project was imagined by poet Bee Smith and artist Morag Donald. Their vision has been brought to life with many helping hands and will be exhibited in Cavan County Museum from January 28th to February 22nd. The project was inspired by the legend of St. Brigid’s miraculously expanding cloak that secured the land for her monastery in Kildare.
Over two hundred individual pieces of feltwork, gelli print, embroidery and crochet adorn the outer cloak. The cloak’s lining has over a hundred prayers, blessings and poems written by school children and adults from across Cavan and beyond.
The project was ultimately financially supported by Creative Ireland, Cavan Arts Office and Cuilcagh Lakelands Global Geopark.
The project includes contributions spanning 80 years of experience; the youngest contributor was a 4 ½ year old Ukrainian refugee schoolchild and the oldest a member of the Irish diaspora, 84 ½ year old Brigid McGovern, originally of Dowra but now resident in Birmingham. The project was supported by guest facilitators from Baileborough Creative Hub and embroidery expert Fatíma González Méndez.
Photography artist Julie Corcoran created an inspired interpretation and visual record of the project from a photo shoot in Cavan Burren Park.
Bringing St. Brigid’s Cloak to Life will be exhibited in Cavan County Museum, Ballyjamesduff from 1st February until 22nd February. The Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am -5pm.