The Business: St Brigid’s Day, RTÉ Radio 1
Moving Pictures: A Woman Bathing in a Stream, Radio 4
Brigid’s Day has just passed, the beginning of the Celtic spring. Imbolg is here.
If you missed it, just listen back to this celebration of Brigid, the patron saint of farmers, midwives, brewers and poets.
Reporter Siofra Mulqueen created such a magical radio package that it lightens the heart and bears frequent repeats.
Take the cattle farmer: “I’m sparkier come the spring. There’s more pep in my step,” he said.
His calves are jumping along like lambs, he said. “Sure, that’d lift anybody.”
If you get a good windy day, his cattle on the hill have long hair and: “Sure look. It’s like she’s had a blow dry. She’s after looking great.”
If that doesn’t make you smile, then call the midwife.
“Meeting a whole new person, in a room where nobody opened the door to let that person in, it’s just magical,” she said.
Our poet also talks about the first snowdrop, “like a little breath”.
“The storms that we’ve had this year - they survived so much. They can teach us about holding your own on the earth. To be pure and vulnerable is also a kind of superpower.”
And finally the publican, coming out of January – a slow month – will definitely be raising a glass to St Brigid.
They say Brigid turned bathwater into beer.
“With the price of raw ingredients, I wish I could,” he said.
This was a beautiful, heart-lifting listen.
More magic, meanwhile, from the talented Cathy FitzGerald who brings us with her to look up close at a series of famous paintings.
First up is one of the National Gallery’s most beloved, Rembrandt’s A Woman Bathing in a Stream.
It’s an intimate image of a woman in a loose cream shift dress.
Look at the way the artist has captured her “lived-in skin” with thick layers of paint.
Stay with it… “we’re about to spend a surprising amount of time talking about a white nightie”.
Look also at how Rembrandt has painted her hands – up close they are light brush strokes, move back and they’re perfect. (You can tell a lot about an artist by how they paint hands and feet.)
FitzGerald’s deft touch makes this a jewel of a series. On the webpage, you’ll find a link so that you can look closely at the painting as you listen to the conversation.
A beautiful listen.