An Open Letter to RTE On St. Brigid

Dear RTE News,

On Saint Brigid’s Day, 1st February 2018, 2019 and 2020, RTE partnered with a group called Herstory.

Lobby group, Herstory, were given free reign and went unchallenged by RTE when they claimed Saint Brigid and a mythical pagan goddess Herstory calls Brigid were one in the same person. These claims were made over three years and were broadcast without any critical analysis by RTE news.

Graphics of Herstory’s mythical goddess were broadcast by RTE of Herstory artwork on historic Irish buildings, including Churches.
RTE at no time challenged Herstory as to their narrative of a pagan goddess being linked to Saint Brigid.

Over the three year period 2018 - 2020, no Church leader or scholar was asked their opinion on the Herstory narrative to refute HerStory’s spin on Saint Brigid.

As a Catholic, I was offended by these RTE broadcasts, finding them grossly misleading, derogatory and heavily biased.

I noted in 2021, after the RTE “GOD IS A RAPIST” broadcast, RTE returned to the traditional Saint Brigid and dropped the Herstory portrayal of Saint Brigid as some sort of mythical pagan goddess.

The inconvenient truth is that Saint Brigid renounced paganism and converted to Christianity to become a magnificent leader for Christians.

I hope this year that RTE will broadcast a traditional Christian Saint Brigid’s day segment. If RTE are going to broadcast HerStory’s pagan narrative, I hope for the purposes of fairness, RTE will ask Herstory to explain why they celebrate a mythical pagan goddess called Brigid and what if any link is there to the very real person of Saint Brigid.

In the interests of fair reporting and to ensure there is no biased reporting by RTE, I request RTE interview a suitable Church scholar with knowledge of the Christian Saint Brigid to refute the claims that Herstory makes.

Now that Saint Brigid’s Day will be a public holiday from 2023, it is timely that RTE gives a balanced view of this topic when they report on Saint Brigid each year.

It is a pity to see RTE, who once used the Saint Brigid’s cross for their logo, abandon Saint Brigid and replace Saint Brigid with misleading pagan narratives that go unchallenged.

Yours Sincerely,

Friends of the Parish Substack