Brigid's Day Festival Vancouver 2021
Last year, owing to the pandemic restrictions the Brigid Vancouver festival was moved fully online. The week-long program made it one of the largest Brigid's Day Festival in the world. It marked an important time of connection for the Irish community at home and abroad.
The range of speakers and presenters at the 2021 Brigid Festival Vancouver was incredible. It included talks on mythology, peace and conflict studies, mental health, literature and women in business. Below are the video links to the speaker profiles, the festival sessions and the Brigid's Day commissioned poems.
2021 Presenters List with bios:
Day 1 - Ailbhe Symth
The Coronavirus and its impact on women
Day 2 - Dr. Dara Culhane
Performance Reading of Letters from the Diaspora
Day 3 - Panel
Legends & Mythology of Brigid
Day 4 - Panel
Covid, Mental Health, and the Irish Diaspora
Day 5 - Panel
Women Leading Change with Irish Canada Chamber of Commerce
Day 6 - Monica McWilliams
Northern Ireland Peace Activist - "Wave Goodbye to Dinosaurs" Talk
Day 7 - Emma Donoghue
Photos that inspired her novel "The Pull of the Stars"
Day 8 - Emer O’Toole
Irish Feminism: A Lovestory
Brigid Poems
To celebrate Brigid's Day 2021, the Department of Foreign Affairs and MoLI - Museum of Literature Ireland, have collaborated on ‘Three Poems for Brigid’, a series of three short online films. Each film showcases a poet and a spoken word performer, and is based around one of the three aspects of Brigid as the triple goddess of Poetry, Healing, and Craftwork.