A few years ago, I cycled home to Kildare after a family weekend in Dundalk. The hook for my cycle was to connect the birthplace of St Brigid in Faughart, just outside Dundalk, with Kildare where Brigid lived and died. This year, to mark St Brigid’s Day, I decided on the shorter (and much flatter!) cycle to Umeras, a townland just outside Monasterevan. Local legend says that this is the actual birth place of Brigid. Umeras is on the Grand Canal between Rathangan and Monasterevan so it was a good opportunity to try out the new cycle path along the…