Reimagining St Brigid’s crosses in county colours

It’s not easy to create something unique, but one artist has been making St Brigid’s crosses like no other, writes Chai Brady

Many people are familiar with a St Brigid’s cross, usually small and crafted with rushes made on the saint’s feast day of February 1 but one Irishman has gone a step further using metal wire to create crosses made in county colours.

Gabriel Gillespie, who lives in Edenderry but is originally from Donegal, has been making St Brigid’s crosses for years, giving them for free to friends and family and telling them to put them above their doors. He has always felt attracted to the image of the cross.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Mr Gillespie explains: “We all know the story, every house would have a St Brigid’s cross on them to keep them safe from fire and everything else. Last year, with Covid, I was working from home and I had a bit more time in the evenings and I wasn’t travelling to work, it’s two hours every day, I found this metal wire and that’s when I had this notion to make a Kilkenny cross, black and amber, I don’t know why.”

From there he perfected his method and has been making crosses in county and club colours for people across Ireland. It’s still early days as it was really mid-November that he started building on his sales but even so he has a few tales to tell about the interactions he’s had with customers – part of the process he particularly enjoys.

Wexford

“I sent one to a woman in Wexford and her friend saw it and bought one that evening. Then they both sent back the boxes I used as packaging. It was actually brilliant, they’re real two Irish mammies, they said ‘we felt bad throwing away the boxes’ so they sent them back,” Mr Gillespie recalls.

“I had another fella from Mayo and he bought one a week before the All-Ireland and I was chatting to him, he was buying it for his Dad.

“He said, ‘I tell ya, it’ll soften the blow of it this weekend’. I didn’t realise the All-Ireland final was on and Mayo were playing Dublin, and I said ‘what’s on this weekend?’, he said, ‘Dublin is going to beat us in the final but at least he’ll have a nice cross to look at after the game, it might lift his spirits,’ he laughs.

Mr Gillespie was a plumber in Dublin – having moved there from Donegal – before the recession, where he met his wife Teresa. They now have three daughters Maeve (7), Grace (5) and Rose (3) and he works full-time in addition to making St Brigid’s crosses in the evenings and on weekends. He named his business Meenavean after the area in Donegal his father and grandparents hailed from.

It wasn’t always easy as he says he’s made hundreds, with the first ones being “way off the mark”.

“There’s quite a few tricks you have to learn and practice to be able to make them. I would have made loads of them and let’s say they wouldn’t be as nice looking as they are now.”

Mr Gillespie then went about getting a patent on his design and sold his old 1993 motorcycle to put into his new business.

He said: “I couldn’t afford lawyers or solicitors or whatever so I had to read up on the legislation for design patents with the IPOI (Intellectual Property Office of Ireland), I applied and I got great help. Because I’m not from a legal background they gave me a few tips along the way. People are very caring!”

Patented

However, he says the reason he got the design patented was to leave a legacy, “With the patents there’s a date and confirmation that it was a lad from Donegal who made them”.

“I think the nicest crosses of the whole lot are the traditional ones made of rushes and reeds and the actual tradition of the making of the crosses on February 1 and what they symbolise in relation to St Brigid and also to protect the home and the people that made them from fire and disease: that is paramount to me.

“I’m lucky in the sense I can make them now at a time where I have access to nice coloured metal and stuff, at the time people first started making them they only had rushes. What those people did with reeds and rushes, they probably hardly had food on the table, was brilliant.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge as being able to show a design in person to someone has more of an impact and does it more justice than a photograph explains Mr Gillespie, saying: “I would be a bit of a chatter and I like the craic and all the rest of it, I do miss the face-to-face stuff to be honest.”

Grandparents

It was in his grandparents’ house that Mr Gillespie says he noticed he was always drawn to the St Brigid’s crosses they made.

“When I was a child visiting my grandparents and you’d be sitting there looking around, looking at clocks or looking at all the old stuff you know, in your own world, but I would always be looking at the crosses that they made. I suppose I was drawn to the cross, I think a lot of people are drawn to the cross,” he said.

“I have been drawn to making them, there is something driving me to make them, even before I sold a cross. I have buckets in the shed, I’ve been making them for years, I don’t know why that is and I can’t explain it. I do know one thing: I really love making them, I really do.”

Recently Fr Eddie Gallagher PP of Kilcar, Donegal, along with Mr Gillespie and his father, put up one of his crosses in the parish church.

“We have a great priest called Fr Eddie and I do listen to his Masses online of a Sunday,” said Mr Gillespie. “When you’re in a church you’ve seen everything in, baptisms, you’ve seen your people being buried in it and everything else, it was quite a big thing for me seeing that go up in the church.”

Looking to the future, Mr Gillespie adds: “I’m going to keep making my crosses anyway, I’ve been making them before the start of this [pandemic] and that’s not going to change. I like knowing who it is for, if somebody trusts me to make something for a mother, a father or son or daughter, I like thinking about where it’s going rather than just making a Dublin cross for the sake of a Dublin cross.

“I hope I don’t lose that, if somebody wants to message me or email me that’s no problem. It takes me a few hours to make one and assemble so it’s not something I’m making in two minutes, putting it together and boxing it and posting it, it’s all handmade. It all takes time.

“It gives me a great buzz to know you’re making something nice for some good people. This started out from friends and family but I’m on a journey and I think it’s only starting.”

Each cross is priced at €120 plus postage in Ireland at €7.

Those interested in Gabriel Gillespie’s work can visit his Meenavean page on Facebook or Instagram. Alternatively, people can contact him on 0864570527 or email: meenavean@gmail.com