Glasson art lights up Kildare cathedral

A Glasson-based artist has expressed delight at seeing her artworks spectacularly illuminated on the walls of a Kildare cathedral and locally on Athlone Castle as part of the captivating Herstory Light Show event recently.

Non Waters' pink-haired Brigid, a painting she donated to the popular Lunch by the Lake event held in Wineport Lodge back in 2019 for Breast Cancer Awareness, is pictured here lighting up, appropriately enough, St Brigid's Cathedral in Kildare town in stunning fashion. She represents a protective Brigid who stands by women affected by cancer, as they take their journey to healing, Non said this week.

Her paintings were just one of a selection used in the 2021 Herstory Light Show which saw landmarks across Ireland, including Athlone Castle and Belvedere House, lit up on January 31 and February 1 last in honour of the Mother & Baby Homes victims, COVID heroines and heroes, Black Lives Matter, ‘Women who have Arrived’ and Brigids of the world. Founded in 2016, the Herstory movement aims to tell the stories of modern, historic, and mythic women.

The pink-haired Brigid painting was also used in last year's Herstory light show on the GPO, Collins Barracks and St Brigid's Cathedral in Kildare, the Glasson artist told the Westmeath Independent, adding that the Herstory team kindly used it again this year along with another piece she described as EU Brigid – inspired by the goddess Brigid and her namesake St Brigid, who were both unifying forces not just in Ireland but right across Europe.

This artwork, Non outlined, represents those forces and celebrates the multi-cultural aspect of our association with all the different countries of the EU, who together stood shoulder to shoulder to help maintain an open border on the island of Ireland.

This painting also makes reference to the legend of St Brigid’s cloak by highlighting each member state’s national flag on the collar.

“This representation was included because of the EU’s East, West, North and South dimension and that as the union inevitably grows, its core values of respect for human dignity, rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law are core fundamentals of a fair and just society, something Brigid I’m sure would have supported,” Non concluded.