That morning I bid farewell to Gronya and Dave and walked the remaining 7 miles to Kildare. By then I had learnt St Brigids prayer by heart and as I recited it over I noticed how fitting was my condition. ‘Brigid, you were a voice for the wounded and weary’, both wounded and weary I certainly was…  
As a congratulatory reward to myself, I booked a self-contained Airbnb for my two nights in Kildare. After putting down my bags, I raced out to the town to have a look around. First I found the high walled Anglican Cathedral which was all locked up. I was told that it would be open the next day so I didn’t mind waiting. Next I found a Carmalites church that was open, and here I went inside to thank Blessed Mary for getting me to Kildare safely (little did I know this extraordinary adventure wasn’t over yet). By now I had come to know that the reeds I had been carrying where the extra large type, so I decided to go in search of the smaller variety. My landlady had given me some direction of where I might find some and on the way I passed St Brigids Parish Catholic Church where mass was just finishing.
I popped inside to chat to the priest and met Father Andy who was a great guy. He even knew Father Stephen's from St Patricks Church that I had taken refuge in Slane. Amazingly he felt to gift the pilgrimage a newly made and already blessed St Brigids cross that he had received earlier that day.  I continued to the field that my landlady had advised I would find the reed, but alas I could not find any. I started to worry slightly as the sun had started to set (and it wasn’t even the season for reeds anyway). But soon I stopped to ask another lady if she knew where some reeds might grow. and she very kindly drove me down to a bog behind St Brigids well. After getting my feet soaked again and getting paniky lost, I finally found enough reeds to make the journey back home. It was close to 9.00pm and I stayed up until 11.00pm making crosses – what fun I had.

I must have stayed only 20 minutes but upon my departure, I found that the Cathedral was now locked and so too were the tall entrance gates; leaving me locked inside! Now, I am not a stranger to the business of climbing over walls, so I desperately ran about looking for a way over. But alas it was just all too high. After some poking about near a shed in the shrub area, I saw some familiar Haris fencing and a convenient slant of wood allowing me to scale it safely and drop to freedom into a kids playground phew.

Feeling elated at my new found freedom and having successfully completed my ceremonies, I decided to try my luck and pay a visit to Solas Bhride, a multi-faith centre set up by three Christian sisters, but which had been closed for many months due to Covid. The centre was a special place as it was home to a symbolic ‘eternal flame of Kildare’. The original flame that burned for centuries at the cathedral fire pit was extinguished during the reformation. But in 1993 the flame was symbolically re-lit in the town centre as a tourist attraction. Defiant that it should never go out again, the sisters re-lit a candle from this flame and have tended to it ever since.
On my way there I bumped into my landlady. She was doubtful the centre would be open but was happy to accompany me all the same. As we were taking a walk around the gardens, one of the sisters saw us and came out to welcome us in. Here we spent a peaceful time in silence and meditated around the ‘eternal’ flame.
After visiting the centre, I felt the missions in Kildare were now complete.