I see that Dublin City Council has undergone another “brand refresh”, to keep up with changing times. According to the press release, the revised logo “integrates the original Dublin crest and the river Liffey into a contemporary design”.
This means the three castles, ancient symbol of the city, are still there. But there’s no sign of them burning, as they always used to be. On the contrary, the castles now have waves lapping against their walls.
Fully half of the new logo comprises water, suggesting that not just the Liffey, but the Dodder, Poddle, and Tolka have all burst their banks. Contemporary design is right. After the January we just endured, the city logo could not be more up to date unless it had sandbags at the castle gates.
On the plus side, another Celtic spring is now upon us, at least in name. Speaking of which, I’m reminded that St Brigid, as she used to be known, has also undergone a brand refresh – or “reimagining”, to use the other marketing buzzword – lately.
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In Dublin anyway. The same local authority has just launched the now annual three-day festival in her honour, inviting us to: “Step Into Spring! Join Dublin City for Brigit 2026 – A City Wide Celebration of Women”.
I’m not sure where the spelling of Brigit with a ‘t’ came from, or when. But it has a cool, Scandi-design look about it, in keeping with the new, more image-conscious saint, who tends these days to emphasise her earlier job as a pagan goddess while playing down the whole saint thing, perhaps fearing it’s a bit old hat.
Speaking of hats, the festival website includes a link to the “Power of Brigit apparel collection, specially designed by Jill & Gill”. This features a range of T-shirts, hoodies, shopping bags, and other merch (although now I mention it, no headwear).
Dublin does not have exclusive rights to Brigit, of course. If anywhere does, it’s the county immediately to the west, where she’s still spelt with a ‘d’ and known proprietorially as “Brigid of Kildare”.
They’re having a festival there too this weekend, with events including a Blindboy podcast, a concert by hot-ticket band, Madra Salach, and a “Taylor Swift party”. I could well see the Dublin version of the saint/goddess dropping in to one of those gigs, maybe after a designer shopping trip (“Brigit of Kildare Village”).
That’s if she can find the time. Back in the city, there is an almost bewildering range of events in her honour, including a “Sauna na mBan”, a show at the National Concert Hall called “Love Your Vulva”, and a “Rebel Women” tour of the GPO, to mention just three of about 70.
To mention a fourth, I’m glad to see they also found space for a demonstration of her traditional cross-making technique.
You’d fear that the modern, urban, shopaholic Brigit would have no time making crosses out of rushes, a plant synonymous with rural poverty and wet land. Yet there it is, at the Botanic Gardens (where interestingly, according to the programme, her name is still spelt with a “d”).
Then again, flexibility is key to the whole Brigit brand, however spelt. Unlike St Patrick, there is no historical record of her life, so her identity can be endlessly refreshed or reimagined. That, after all, is what those marketing geniuses, the early Christians, seem to have done, rebranding an older pagan cult to reflect the fast-changing times of the sixth century.
For those of us born on her feast day, the new celebration of the Brigit cult brings mixed emotions. On the one hand it’s nice that your birthday is also a State holiday. On the other, as a man, you may feel simultaneously honoured and sidelined.
Luckily, I’m in regular touch with my feminine side these days. But having been born in less enlightened times, when you could be beaten up at school for having a poetic, faraway look in your eyes, I remain glad that, unlike Mary, Brigid was never used as a middle name for boys in Ireland.
James Joyce, who attached a mystical significance to being born around this time – his birthday was February 2nd, and 40 years later he published Ulysses on that date – probably felt the same.
[ Time to restore Brigit’s distaff as a symbol of peace and healingOpens in new window ]
Mind you, where his parents intended “Augustine” as his middle name, he was saddled with “Augusta” by a clerical error and later inflicted a similar joke on his most famous character, giving Leopold Bloom a “Paula” instead of “Paul” on his birth certificate. Maybe Joyce was anticipating the whole feminisation of February thing, more than a century in advance.
Anyway, for me too this is always a time of rebirth, renewal, and refreshing the brand. I’m still in talks with my image consultants about where exactly we’ll go with it this year. But for now, in the spirit of spring, I plan to start by reimagining next week’s weather forecast.
