July 22.]

ST. BRIDGET’S EVE.

IRELAND.

On St. Bridget’s Eve every farmer’s wife in Ireland makes a cake, called Bairinbreac; the neighbours are invited, the madder of ale and the pipe go round, and the evening concludes with mirth and festivity.—Col. Vallancey, Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, 1772, p. 21; see Fosbroke’s EncyclopÆdia of Antiquities, 1840, p. 657.