1. dúchas.ie
  2. The Schools' Collection
  3. Kilmaganny, Thomastown

School: Kilmaganny, Thomastown

Location:
Kilmaganny, Co. Kilkenny
Teacher:
C. Ó Hurdail
Browse
Mode:
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0852, Page 305

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0852, Page 305

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Kilmaganny, Thomastown
  2. XML Page 305
  3. XML “Festival Customs”
  4. XML “Festival Customs”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. Festival Customs

    Share Share Post
    On St Stephens Day many boys go out with the wren. On the eve of that day, they catch the wren & get their dress prepared. They then go from house to house singing the wren-song:-
    The wren, the wren,
    The king of all birds
    On St Stephen's Day he was caught in the furze
    We hunted her up,
    And we hunted her down
    We hunted her to Baurnadown
    Although she is little,
    Her honour is great
    Get up old lady
    & give us a treat
    Up with the kettle
    & down with the pan
    Give us a penny to bury the wren.
    It is the custom to give a few pence to the head of the wren-boys to bury the wren. When they have enough collected, they divide it evenly.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    History Edit
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Thomas Hurley
    Gender
    Male