As the month of January draws to a close, we are fast approaching Saint Bridget’s Day on 1st February, which in Irish tradition marks the first day of spring. It is around this time of year that the calving season begins, and Saint Bridget herself is considered the patron saint of cattle in Irish tradition. The saint is often associated with a particular cow in the folk imagination and in some narratives, as in the following account from the National Folklore Collection, this cow is identified as the legendary Glas Gaibhneach (or in this case the “Glas Gaimhneach”):
Bhí bó ag naomh Brígidh darab ainm don Glas Gaimhneach agus dá cómhartha san féin ná raibh i nEirin riabh a sarú de bhó. Bhí sí de theist uirrthi ná raibh aon árus dar beireadh fuithi ná gur lion sí suas go bruach é le leamhnacht breagh cúmhra. Bhí fén ndeara an Glas Gaimhneach a thabhairt uirrthi ná go mbíodh gamhain glas buineamh aici gach bliain.
Nuair a cailleadh brígidh do bhroinn sí an bó ar bochtaibh na h-Éireann agus bochtaibh go mbeadh easba bainne orrtha agus bhídís ag teacht na sluagribh ós gach áird de’n dtír ga crúdh gach maidin as tráthnóna. Do lean an sceal mar sin ar feadh scaithibh aimsire cun gur cualaidh cladhaire mná an sceal. Bíódh geall ar sise go mbearfhadsa árus fúithi ná líonfaidh sí. Rug sí le criathair agus cuaidh sí fe’n mboin agus bhí sí a crú isteach ann cun go raibh sí corrtha s dócha gur bhfada leis an mboin an fhaid a bhí sí fúithi agus do tháinig mí-fhoidne uirrrthi. D’fheach sí tímceall uirrthi agus nuair a connaic sí a cuid banne go léir na lochánaibh ar fuaid na páirce do thuit an t-anm aisti. Slan beo mar a n-ínnsear é. (CBÉ 25:537-8)
Saint Brigid had a cow called the “Glas Gaimhneach” and there was never a better cow in Ireland. It was said of her that there wasn’t any vessel that could be put under her which she wouldn’t fill to the brim with lovely, fragrant new milk. She was called the “Glas Gaimhneach” because she would have a grey calf every year.
When Brigit died she gave the cow to the poor people of Ireland, the poor who didn’t have enough milk and they would be coming in droves from every part of the country to milk her every morning and afternoon. The story continued like this for a while until a sly woman heard the story. She vowed that she would bring a vessel which the cow couldn’t fill. She brought a sieve and she went under the cow and was milking her into it until the cow got fed up by the length of the time the woman was under her and she grew impatient. She looked behind her and when she saw all her milk in little lakes around the field her soul departed from her. God save us from the like of it. NFC 25:537-8
The Glas Gaibhneach was a prolific milk-yielding cow in Irish tradition. Her name can appear in various forms including Glas Ghoibhneann, Glas Ghoibhleann (even Glas Gaimhneach as seen above) but ultimately these variants have been translated to “the grey [cow] of Goibhniu” by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, with Goibhniu being the divine smith of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, the supernatural pre-Christian pantheon of Irish tradition.
Cow Lantern created by Dunn Create and local volunteers which featured in Killorglin’s Biddy’s Day Festival Parade, 2019
While in the story related above the Glas Gaibhneach was said to belong to Saint Bridget, other accounts attribute the cow to different saints including Saint Brendan (NFC 1065:613-6). One account from The Schools’ Collection asserts that the Glas Gaibheach “was a very wonderful cow sent by “God” for the good of the poor during the wicked famine days”, while in various other stories the supernatural cow is not associated with a Christian saint or God, but rather the fairies and is identified as a “fairy cow”. Thus Christian or otherwise, the Glas Gaibhneach certainly has divine implications, and it has been argued by some scholars such as Garrett S. Olmsted and Dáithí Ó hÓgáin that this association between cow and deity could in fact be a legacy of earlier Proto-Indo-European religion, where goddesses often took a bovine form and were associated with rivers (for example consider the case of the River Boyne, named after the goddess Bóinn, an earlier version of whose name – “Bóuvinda” – can be interpreted as “illuminated cow”).
F008.18.00001 “Unusual rock, near Cill Maolchéadair [Co. Kerry].” Photographer: Déirdre Hennigan, May 1995.
Despite these supernatural associations, the Glas Gaibhneach is also firmly rooted in the natural world and traditions of the cow can be traced in various landmarks found across the country. Within the Photographic Collection of the National Folklore Collection there is a photo of a rather unusual stone in Cill Maoilchéadair, Co. Kerry, known in popular tradition as “Na Beistí” or “The Cooling Vessel” (see photo above). Tradition states that the Glas was milked into the holes in this stone (see NFC 911:213-4). Not far from Na Beistí can be found a pair of standing stones, known in popular tradition as Geata na Glaise Gaibhní or “The Gate of the Glas Gaibhneach” (see photo below). An account from Ballyferriter in the Main Manuscript Collection tells us that after grazing, “…ní bhíoch a bolg lán i gceart choídhche go ngeóch saí ‘dir dhá chloi’ bhí i nGalorus go gcimileóch a bolg ar gach taobh dóibh” (“…her stomach won’t ever be completely full until she would go between two stones that were in Gallarus and she could scratch both sides of her stomach on them.”) (NFC 980: 15-7)
Geata na Glaise Gaibhní / Gate of the Glas Gaibhneach. Image taken by the author.
Hence there is much to be learnt about the narratives and lore surrounding the Glas Gaibhneach in the holdings of the National Folklore Collection, and as the spring and the calving season beckons it is a timely occasion to revisit some of the traditions surrounding this prodigious milking cow in Irish tradition.
This guest blog post was researched and written by Tracey Hayes, graduate of the MA in Irish Folklore and Ethnology, UCD.
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Further Reading:
Ó Catháin, Séamus. The Festival of Brigit: Celtic Goddess & Holy Woman. Dublin: DBA Publications Ltd, 2004.
Ó hÓgáín, Dáithí. The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance. Cork: The Collins Press, 2006.
Olmsted, Garrett S. The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans. Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapítvány, 1994.