It’s a pleasure to share this photo essay of our closing day celebration at 12 Star Gallery in London by photographer Jamie Smith.

The afternoon was a signature event for the Irish Embassy of London’s St Brigid’s Day celebration of women and creativity. Now in its second year St Brigid’s Day is an initiative which is being rolled out at Irish Diplomatic missions around the world.

In addition to marking the culmination of our St Brigid’s Day Exhibition by 90 women artists, the afternoon was also a tribute to poet and author Leland Bardwell who passed away in 2016. Leland had lived the last 25 years of her life in Sligo. Her poem “St Brigid’s Day 1989” was the inspiration for the exhibition.

We wanted to say really special thanks to theatre Performer, writer and director Olwen Fouéré and multi-award winning musician Caoimhe Kearins who both traveled to London for the tribute to Leland. Olwen provided readings from Leland’s poetry and novels alongside musical interludes from Caoimhe.

Thank you also to Ireland’s Ambassador to Great Britain Adrian O’Neill who having opened the exhibition on January 22nd returned to spend time with us on February 1st even though his time was at a premium with all the St Brigid’s Day Celebration events across London.

Finally a huge word of thanks to all the participating artists, everyone who travelled over and all those who couldn’t make it for agreeing to be part of this initiative. To all the Sligo people, friends and family of Leland’s, friends and families of our participating artists, thank you for making such a magnificent effort to get to London for this day. We hope this will be the first of many such exhibition.