School: Rathcoffey, Donadea (roll number 6174)
- Location:
- Rathcoffey North, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Bean Uí Laideáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0771, Page 206
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- XML “Festival Customs”
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- Festival Customs.
St Stephens Day:
In this district boys go around in groups of 4,5 and numbers of up to 12 collecting money from house to house. They carry afirze bush, which is usulaly decorated with coloured ribbons,toys, coloured papers and sometimes picture post-cards. They also have a cage and a wren. They usulaly stay up late previous night to catch a wren in thatch of houses. Some members of the group wear false faces and carry different musical instruments. One person carries the cage, a second carries the firze bush and a thrid collects the money in a little money box. At the end of the day this money is divided equally among the group. In this disctrict, the custome is to hand a stone to house-holders for good luck. Then they have various rhymes to recite or if there is a good dancer among the crowd he is called upon to step itout. The following rhyme is recited by all together:-
The wren, the wren, King of all birds,
St. Stephen's day was cought in the firze(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Molly Reilly
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Painestown, Co. Kildare
