Friday 25 February 2011

Holy shades of matriarchy, Batman!

This documentary was posted on one of the boards I lurk on, from the Irish language channel TG4 about Brighid:

Part One - pre-Christian Brighid

Part Two - into Christianity and the modern era

It's in Irish, but there are subtitles, and some of the interviewees you might be familiar with already - Seán Ó Duinn, Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, and Nuala Ní Dhomnaill. It's beautifully done, but there's a heavy emphasis on Brigid as The Mother Goddess, maiden-mother-crone-Trinity-before-there-was-the-Trinity, and all goddesses being one etc...not the sorts of things I agree with, but otherwise I enjoyed it. Nuala Ní Dhomnaill does some wonderful songs, and in part two you get to see some Imbolg traditions being performed.

Also, if you're struggling with pronunciations for festivals and such, it's quite handy...

It worked for me, here in Scotland, but I can't say for sure if it will be viewable across the Pond as well - worth a watch, though, if you can. Each part is just under half an hour long.

4 comments:

Erynn said...

Yeah, I was really not into Ó Duinn's MMC triad thing. So not working for me. And he apparently got that from the Farrars, if his bibliography is any indication.

nefaeria said...

I am in Canada and it seems like it will work fine for me. Thanks for posting this! :)

Seren said...

I'm glad it works, Nefaeria, and no problem :)

Yeah, the MMC thing was a little cringeworthy, as was the whole conflationist thing going on. I wonder if he consulted on the script? I don't recall him emphasising the MMC so much in The Rites of Brigid, but then I've not read his other book yet...

nefaeria said...

I caught cringe-worthy "maiden, mother, crone" thing too. But if one can look past that kind of tripe, I think it was worth the watch. Besides, we generally have to sift through that to find the goodies more often than not. ;)