" (thinly disguised) pagan worship went on in Christian churches."

I've given this a lot of thought myself and it's the only answer *if* sheela is The Hag (or any oter for that matter.

We've had a chat here before about ealy churches being aligned to sunrises on the patron saint's day.

As to the quote ...

She is right about Christianity coming to the people in GB. It did that everywhere ... except Ireland! Ireland is the only place on record where the Kings were converted before the populace started to follow it. The folks stuck to their own ways.

After Patrick (Ha-Ha) all the rest of the Irish saints were Irish (well most of them).

I have raised this before somewhere too - Early Irish Christianity is so quirky because the people leading the flocks were the sons/daughters of druid (type) priests or were druids themselves.

The continued hallowing of Brigid, wells (in the extreme) and bullaun stones (my favourite area of stuy right now) really does show a continuation of the old in the new. Ireland was unique until the 12th Century when Rome finally decided to interfere here. Before then the irish pretty much did what they wanted to.

I would say that Brigid (St. Brigit) is as important in Ireland as Patrick is. I would say that she was more important at one time. But that gets us nowhere with the Hag.