Brigid in Irish Mythology is a lady of the Tuatha de danann, originally a Celtic goddess. Her name (earlier, Brigit) meant literally ‘the exalted one’.
…interestingly the goddess is also called Brig in Irish sources, and this corresponds with a continental variant of her name, Briga. Briganti may indeed have been the Gaulish and British goddess whom Caesar equated with the Roman patroness of arts and crafts, Minerva. In line wiht this, a ninth-century glossary describes Brigid as a poetess and daughter of the Dagda.
She was ‘a goddess whom the poets adored because her protection was very great and very famous’. She had, the glossarian states, two sisters, both also called Brigid, a factor that exemplifies the Celtic tendencies to triplicate deities.
There are several indications that Brigid had agricultural fertility as her function besides the inspiring of poetry. The medieval compendium of Irish myth and pseudo-history, the Lebor Gabala, in listing Brigid among the Tuatha dé danann, again referes to her as ‘Brigid the poetess, daughter of the Dagda’.
The Lebor gabala states that she had two oxen. One of these was called Fea and the other Feimhean, and from them were named Magh Fea(the plain of the Barrow in County Carlow), and Magh Feimhin (the plain in south-east County Tipperary). Along with these oxen was ‘Triath, king of the swine, from whom is name Treithirne’. Treithirne was the name of a plain in west County Tipperary, and the mythical boar in question was more usually called the Torc Triath.
It is further stated in the Lebor Gabala that these three animals used to cry out after rapine had been committed in Ireland, and all of this suggests that Brigid was a sort of guardian-goddess of domestic animals.
Extract from: Ó hÓgáin, D. (2006). The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance. The Boydell Press. pp. 50-55.
Some Irish mythology that features Brigid:
Cath Magh Tuireadh. – The (Second) Battle Of Magh Tuireadh.
Lebor Gabala Erenn – The Book of Invasions. Part 5.
Some secondary articles:
Johnston, E. (2002). “The ‘Pagan’ and ‘Christian’ Identities of the Irish Female Saint.” In Mark Atherton (Ed.), Celts and Christians: New Approaches to the Religious Traditions of Britain and Ireland (pp. 60–78). Cardiff: University of Wales Press
Hutton, R. (1996). The stations of the sun: A history of the ritual year in Britain. (pp. 134-8) Oxford University Press
Cormac, King of Cashel. (1868). Sanas Cormaic: Cormac’s glossary (pp. 23) (J. O’Donovan, Trans.; W. Stokes, Ed.). O. Glover.
O’Sullivan, P.V. (1991) Irish superstitions and legends of animals and birds. Cork: Mercier Press. pp. 10-11, 112-124.