Local Faces: Caitríona Breslin

CAITRÍONA Breslin has fond memories of growing up on St Brigid’s Road in Clondalkin, where the community spirit was in full swing in a supportive and friendly environment.

The mother-of-two is hoping to enliven the community again with the St Brigid’s Imbolc Festival in Clondalkin, which last weekend was a vibrant celebration of the patroness saint.

For Caitríona, St Brigid has been a fixture of her life through having grown up on a street named after the saint and living within close proximity to St Brigid’s Holy Well in Clondalkin.

“Being from St Brigid’s Road, looking out of my bedroom window I could see the well and I played around the well when I was younger,” the past pupil of Coláiste Bríde recalled.

“When I was in school, the well got dilapidated so we cleaned it up.”

The decision by Caitríona and her classmates to clean up St Brigid’s Holy Well is indicative of the sense of togetherness in the area that Caitríona experienced throughout her childhood.

Caitríona says the Festival seems to be connecting with so many people and the full programme is available on the La Fhéile Bríde/Brigid’s Day Festival Clondalkin Facebook page

“I just loved growing up in Clondalkin, on St Brigid’s Road,” she said.

“There was a real sense of family and friends and I have so many memories of playing out on the road – there was so much fun and freedom.”

When Caitríona finished school, she studied marketing in Rathmines and worked for a confectionary company in Kilcock for more than a decade.

While she enjoyed this work, she developed an interest in yoga that she then transformed into a new career for her to pursue – and she now proudly teaches yoga in her hometown.

Caitríona said making this life change felt natural to her, when in 2005 she handed in her notice at the confectionary company and commenced her career as a yoga teacher – which she continues to do to this day.

“I finished my yoga training on the Saturday and handed in my notice in the confectionary company the following Monday,” she explained.

“It just felt natural [to teach yoga].

“I really enjoyed being of service and connecting with the community that I had when I was growing up.

“It reconnected me to people that I’d known over the years.

For me, it was a path that felt right and was more ‘me’.”

A couple of years after this, Caitríona and her husband, Simon, welcomed their first child, Aoibhinn, now aged 14, who was born with a metabolic disorder and blindness, and has other complex needs.

Three years later, their second daughter, Soirse, now aged 11, was born with a limb difference.

Both young girls are now doing well, but the family faced a lot of adversity when they were younger.

On reflection, Caitríona said she wouldn’t have been able to sustain her career in marketing while raising her daughters, and it was another indication that she made the right choice in teaching yoga.

The Clondalkin community was a constant source of support to the family, particularly during Aoibhinn’s younger years, and this has emboldened Caitríona’s desire to hold a community event.

While there have been smaller-scale events marking St Brigid’s Day in the area over the last few years, now that it’s got bank holiday status the organisers went all out for 2023.

The festival ran across the week from Thursday, February 2, right through to bank holiday Monday.

Highlights included a street performance in Clondalkin village, a series of St Brigid and Celtic-themed events at Aras Chronain, and a Pilgrim Walk from Stanhope Street to Clondalkin on bank holiday Monday.

“It seems to be connecting with so many people,” added Caitríona.

“I think there’s a desire for us to connect with the land, connect with our traditions and with ourselves.

“The mythology of Brigid includes divine feminine energy, and I feel that’s something that’s missing in our modern world – that ability to slow down and contemplate instead of working at 100 miles an hour and burning out.”