School: Meall an tSrutháin (roll number 2117)
- Location:
- Maulatrahane, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Dll. Ó Luasaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0299, Page 037
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- XML “How St Stephen's Day was Spent when my Father and Mother were Young”
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- St. Stephen's Day was spent in a somewhat different manner to the modern way in which it is spent.
"The wren the wren the King of all birds
On St.Stephen's Day she was caught on the furze."
The above verse was very familiar at the doors of the country houses from early morning until sunset on St Stephen's Day in the last century.
It was recited by the youthful boys and girls of the period.
They traversed the Country carrying on their shoulders a holy bush with a dead wren on one of the boughs.
They stopped at the doors of the houses singing their songs.
The inhabitants gave them money as was the custom. The boys had their faces painted and some of them wore "faces and eyes". They had ribbons(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Maire Ní Choileain
- Gender
- Female
