An Post issues stamp set for St Brigid and Imbolc festival

1 February 2024

An Post has issued a striking set of stamps on the feast day of Saint Brigid also marking the pagan festival of Imbolc – both celebrated on 1st February.

The stamps are by Louth-based artist Yoko Akino, with design by Oonagh Young of Design HQ. Both saint and goddess are associated with fruitful harvests, and a specially designed First Day Cover envelope includes both stamps and imagery of a fertile meadow and oak sapling, a lovely keepsake this St. Brigid’s Day. The stamps and First Day Cover envelope are available at anpost.com/shop and in selected Post Offices nationwide.

The ‘N’ rate St. Brigid’s stamp (€1.40), which covers postage all over the island of Ireland, features the St. Brigid Cross, acknowledging the continuing relevance and influence of St Brigid who was born in Co Louth, led a large monastery in Co. Kildare and became one of Ireland’s three patron saints.  She is said to have used a cross made from rushes in the deathbed conversion of a pagan chieftain.

The ‘W’ rate stamp (€2.00), for worldwide postage, features a fire motif symbolising Brigid’s divine, creative and healing powers. The Imbolc festival celebrates the goddess Brigid’s feast day, mirroring the Christian feast day of St. Brigid. Known as a triple goddess in Celtic Tuatha Dé Danann mythology, Brigid is one of the few pagan figures to endure after Christianity came to Ireland. 

A renewed and growing interest in Brigid both nationally and internationally, a new annual public holiday and numerous festivals nationwide signal her importance both as a symbol of authority within Christianity and as an inspiring figure of womanhood and empowerment. Brigid’s qualities of compassion, peace-making and courage, and her active role in modelling equality between genders, underline her revival – speaking to issues of our time.

Aileen Mooney, Irish Stamps Manager, encourages people to get into the spirit of things: “February is Springtime, always a good time to renew connections by writing and posting a card or letter to someone in your life who gives you support and strength, builds your resilience, listens, makes you laugh and is your ally in a sometimes challenging world.”