via New Year’s Eve in Ireland: Banishing Hunger for the Coming Year
St Stephen’s Day and the Wren Boys
Clare, 26 December –
The Rev James Grahame, curate of Kilrush (Noted before 1816);
‘Formerly the youth of the whole district combined as wren boys, but now they go in bands of from two to six, and the wren bush is often a mere branch with a few rags and no wren. A structure of evergreens, in general design like a crux ansate, covered with streamers and with the dead bird hung up or in a sort of cage, was till lately carried around. There is still to be found tolerable dancing and singing, as a break in the weary succession of small begging parties, shuffling and playing stupid bulfoonery.
The verses usually begin with:
“The wran, the wran, the king of all the birds,
On Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze.”
but the next lines are greatly varied:
“Although he is little his family is great,
And (or…
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thefadingyear 