A not so quiet weekend in Kildare : horses and heat
- angelaandjack
- Jul 2
- 2 min read
It was no wonder we struggled to book accommodation in Kildare in late May. The 23rd and 24th May were the dates of the Tattersall's Irish Guineas Weekend held at the Curragh Racecourse just out of Kildare. Busloads of smartly dressed young punters were set down in the Market Square elevating the noise levels as they filled up all the outside tables at the pubs around the Square. An extra contributing factor was the three day Irish heatwave that began on the Saturday. With temperatures of 28 to 30 degreees Celsius the Irish were melting and their fair skins were turning lobster red.
For we three pilgrims something else was turning red - the vestments worn for Pentecost at both St. Brigid's Parish Catholic Church and St. Brigid's Cathedral ( the Church of Ireland).
We attended both Churches for Mass and were delighted to be present at the baptism of two young women at the Cathedral. The spirit of St. Brigid was very evident in both churches and it is clear that Kildare is certainly tending the flame of Brigid and keeping her legacy alive.
We assembled the ingredientsfor lunch and headed to St. Brigid's Garden Well for a reflective ritual with Brigid's prayer stones and a picnic by the well. There were only a few people there when we arrived however it was not long before we were joined by a multifamily group whose primary reason for visiting appeared to involve cooling off in the spring fed creek that creates the Holy Well of Brigid. As the children jumped in and out of the water there was great hilarity as some of the adults dipped their feet in the stream and pronounced it "very" cold.
For a few moments I felt my Judgemental Self ascending into outrage. How dare they treat Brigid's sacred place as a play ground? What ever happened to respect? Fortunately I was distracted by a hearty laugh as Brigid whispered not so quietly in my ear, "Can you not share my delight in the children's joy ? Surely these waters our good God provided are meant for refreshment and healing! Lighten up Angela and laugh a little."
So I tried to see this scene through Brigid's eyes and I was doing quite well until I returned to the car park designed for 4 or 5 cars and now holding about 10 vans and SUV's each blocking the others and creating a regular Irish traffic jam. If it hadn't been such a challenge to manouvre our largish hire car safely back onto the access road the sight of half a dozen hot and flustered Irish men giving contradictory commands and hand gestures to direct me would have been absolutely hilarious! But even for Brigid I couldn't summon a laugh at the time although later the three of us did share a retrospective chuckle.
Fortunately when we returned to the well after dinner we were able to spend time in quiet reflection and honouring nature as day turned to dusk and the birds returned to their nests carrying the crumbs from our picnic to feed their young.
