Shelfmarks: St Brigid’s Day Special

Shelfmarks is a podcast by the Royal Irish Academy in which podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns sifts through the Academy collection for Shelfmarks (biographies, manuscripts, books and reference from the collection) and invites a guest writer to discuss their own relationship with the natural world. Writers include Amanda Bell, Kerri Ní Dhochartaigh, Manchán Magan, Siobhán Mannion, Jane Clarke, Neil Hegarty and Elaine Feeney. Each writer has been specially commissioned to write pieces exploring their own relationship with nature.

In this special episode of Shelfmarks for St Brigid’s Day, produced in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Zoë explores the figure of Brigid. She imagines her origins in Irish folktale and story and delves into the Academy collection for traces of Brigid in the recordings of the Doegen archive. She’s joined by guest writer Elaine Feeney. Together, they go for a walk in Renville Park in Galway and chat about Elaine’s early life on a farm, superstition, women’s safety in nature and what Brigid means to her. Elaine has written two specially commissioned pieces for this episode of Shelfmarks.