Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

St. Valentine's Day is not a public holiday. I accept St. Valentine's Day has a connection to this city. Is St. Valentine's heart not in the Carmelite church on Whitefriar Street?

However, St. Brigid is the core patron saint to our country. It is not only a Catholic or Christian tradition, although Brigid is someone who is revered, not only in Ireland but in Wales, I understand, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, in the Anglican tradition here as well as the Catholic tradition, but also she is wider, broader and bigger than that because she brings us back into prehistory to the festival of Brigid, a Celtic goddess, and also the feast day of Imbolc, that celebration of the arrival of spring that goes back into history. It makes sense for us to celebrate the arrival of spring, the turning of nature, the return of life, the return of light, and that is something we need to get back in touch with. We need to get back in connection with the traditions and the culture of our country and there is no stronger tradition or culture than Bríd or Brigid's.

It is important for us to recognise our feminine tradition and side. I would go the whole way. I would have female priests tomorrow no matter what the Pope thinks. We have a lot to do in here. We are still under-represented when it comes to women. The mechanism we introduced to increase the number of women in here has been a hugely progressive step but it is not going far enough. Our country will be far stronger and far better when we celebrate and follow our feminine side, and listen and involve. Why not then start by recognising our great patron saint, Bríd, as well as our other? Why do we merely celebrate Patrick and forget about Brigid?

This was a remarkable woman, a huge, fantastic and obviously spiritual leader in the historical analysis, and it is historic. The annals are there recording her life in the 5th and 6th centuries. She was an adviser to Brendan the Navigator and to Kevin. This woman was an appointer of bishops. She was a leader. She had 13,000 women and monastic settlement men following her order, but she was also a brewer. She was also a dairy woman extraordinaire. She was also a healer. She was also a midwife. She was even, it appears, if one believes the archeological analysis, there to remove an unwanted pregnancy at a most difficult time.

This is a woman who could speak for many women and men in our country if we had a holiday to mark her name, and it would mark that critical point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Having a public holiday at that time would give us a sense of hope. We live in a difficult climate as this country is so far North that it is dark in the winter. I do not know what the other Members think of this but when the clocks went back at the weekend and winter is arriving, there is a sense that it is tough. Our position is at a very far northern latitude. No wonder it was deep in our tradition to celebrate the arrival of spring. That is what we would do if we had Lá Fheile Bríde as a national holiday. When we look into it that makes sense. Certain other factors connect with it. In the United States, Abraham Lincoln signed the Act abolishing slavery on 1 February 1865 and 1 February is their national freedom day.

A public holiday on 1 February here would fall at just the right time of the year. The long winter period is the hardest. To have a public holiday at this time would allow us to take a break at that difficult time when we are getting through the winter blues and we are starting to think of the arrival of spring. Everyone thinks it does not feel like the first day of spring on 1 February but it is. It starts to prepare us for the return of the sun and return of the growth of the grass. For that reason alone, it would make sense to mark it by having a public holiday.

I put this serious suggestion to the Minister and she as a female Minister might consider it. She might bring the proposal to her Cabinet colleagues and tell them that it might be worth the economic cost. It might give us a period of reflection. As I understand it, the ancient tradition of Imbolc goes back to the Hill of Tara and the stones there record that particular day and time as being important. In the Minister's area more than anyone else's, it goes to the core of our connection to the earth, to creation and to our feminine side. For all those reasons I earnestly put forward the proposal that we create a new national holiday, but it should be on 1 February not at the end of April, which is very close to our May holiday and Easter holidays where we are already well served in terms of celebrating national days. Let us increase the number of public holidays from nine to ten and by going to ten let us celebrate our feminine side.

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